


It's in Your Blood

by Nonesane



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra, Bleach
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fusion, Canon-Typical Violence, Crossover, Mind Games, Mind/Mood Altering Substances, Multi, Unresolved Sexual Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-24
Updated: 2014-02-25
Packaged: 2018-01-13 16:16:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 52,668
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1233019
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nonesane/pseuds/Nonesane
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Avatar Korra past from old age more than two decades ago, leaving the world in political chaos. The new Avatar has yet to show themself and who can blame them, with Equalists and the bender supremasists "The Powerful" fighting tooth and nail for each scrap of land there is.</p>
<p>Izuru Kira and his two friends are on the run from Republic City, aiming to join the peace movement known only as the Society. But things are about to go wrong.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Written during NaNoWriMo 2012 as a gift for my dear sister [chibiangle](http://chibiangle.deviantart.com).
> 
> She made a wonderful cover image for the fic, which can be found [here](http://chibiangle.deviantart.com/art/It-s-in-your-blood-411549346).
> 
> **OBS!** This was was written after I'd only seen season 1 of Korra. Thus, it goes very AU after season 1. Because of this I think I'll be writing a "new" version once I've finished seasons 4 - but I won't be deleteing this!

The river was hypnotic. They'd been traveling through the woods for two weeks, with the only water being the constant rain; helpful, but not enough in an emergency. Now, standing on the edge of a cliff with the safety of water so close and yet so far below them, Izuru couldn't tear his eyes away.

Until Renji slapped him upside the head. "Quit your daydreaming! We need to figure out a way to get around this."

"Leave Izuru alone," Momo said and elbowed Renji in the ribs. "It's not his fault that you're a lousy guide."

"I'm not a lousy guide, it was three years since I was here last!"

"Then maybe you should have stopped and asked for directions in the village. You know, the one we passed through _three weeks ago_."

Izuru rubbed at the back of his head. The slap hadn't hurt, but tending to it gave him something to look busy with while Renji and Momo argued. His attention having been pulled away from the rushing water, he took a moment to take in the rest of their surroundings. The woods towered like a great wall behind them and before them lay a deep fissure, with the river at the bottom. On the other side, thin pillars of smoke told of houses squirreled away somewhere among the bush-covered hills. It had to be at least ten meters across.

A cold wind tugged at their clothes and hair, leaving Izuru wishing for longer sleeves. Fall was approaching and he thought with longing of his old coat, left on the back of a chair in some inn they'd made a hasty exit from the month before.

"I think we went around, last time," Renji said. "We'll just need to figure out where."

"That could take days!" Momo said. "We don't have time for that."

"We have all the time in the world."

"Did you fail to notice the soldiers or was I the only one running for my life?"

"That was a whole month ago!"

"And you think they've given up? Or that there aren't any other patrols?"

Izuru sighed. If left to their own device they could go on like that for hours. It was amusing, in some ways, to see this side of Momo; with everyone else, she was sweet and quite to the point of being shy. Well, unless you provoked her.

"I'll get us across."

Momo and Renji fell silent and turned to look at Izuru. "How?"

A small smile that years ago would have been smug found its way onto Izuru's lips. "Like this."

The movements were familiar. In a way, bending was like breathing; Izuru couldn't ever imaging how to forget it, but he couldn't describe it either. Yes, the hand motions and steps could be explained and shown, but the sensation of water following his will was indescribable.

A pillar of water rose from the river, then another and another, until there were four pillars of water forming stepping stones from one side of the fissure to the other.

Renji let out a soft whistle. "Not bad. Can you hold them?"

"Would I have done this if I couldn't?"

Renji huffed, which earned him another elbow from Momo. "Just jump already!"

"Fine."

Izuru held the pillars steady as Momo leaped and made sure to make her landing soft. Renji followed close behind her, scowling. Izuru couldn't hear what they were saying to each other, but he suspected the disagreement hadn't been laid to rest quite yet.

The moment the two of them landed on the other side, Izuru let the pillars fall.

"What are you doing?!" Renji called, looking ready to throttle him. "How are you supposed to get across?"

Izuru didn't answer. Instead, he jumped.

The water rushed towards him, its roar drowning out Renji and Momo's shouts of fear and dismay. With a whirl of his hands he got parts of it to rise towards him, meeting him halfway down. Lessening the impact of the water took little effort. The twister he'd created sent him spinning upwards and deposited him on the other side of the fissure. Drying his clothes was almost an afterthought.

He got another slap upside the head from Renji.

"Idiot!" Momo said, but there was a twinkle in her eye that told him she wasn't all that mad. "Next time you warn us first or I'll burn off your eyebrows, understood?"

"It's not like you haven't seen me do that before."

"From the surface of a lake and up, not after a five meter fall. _Idiot_."

Renji looked like he had something to add on that note; something loud. Instead, he clamped his lips shut and held up a hand, ushering silence. Izuru's shoulders tensed and he curled in on himself, striking a defensive battle stance. Momo did the same, one hand on the pouch hanging from her belt.

"Over there," Renji whispered, indicating the first line of bushes where the hills began.

They all held their breaths. Izuru reached out for the river, felt the water stand behind him like an army. Hopefully there wouldn't be anyone in the bushes who could turn that against him.

"We know you're there!" Renji shouted. Flames blossomed in the palm of his hands. "Come out and fight, you cowards!"

A head popped out of the bushes. It was distinctly lacking any kind of military gear or rebel markings. It was also quite small.

"Hi!" the child said and gave all three of them a gap-toothed grin. "Who are you? Why do your clothes look so weird? Are you benders? Can you make the water fly again? Please, please, please!"

"Yeah," another child joined in, jumping out of the bushes to the first child's left. "One more time! Pretty please?"

The flames in Renji's hands went out like candles in the face of a blizzard. His expression would have had Izuru stifling a laugh, if he hadn't been so busy trying to take in the small armada of children before them. There were nine of them, clothes and hair messy in the way that spoke more of playing in the woods than a lack of money and soap.

"You brats have some nerve, sneaking up on us like that!" Renji said, his forehead tattoos wrinkling into black splotches. "You don't sneak up on benders! What if we'd burnt you to crisps?!"

"Oooh, you're a firebender!" one of the children crowed, jumping with excitement. "You're a firebender! Show us some tricks!"

"Hush." Momo had taken a step forward, placing herself between Renji and the children. The children immediately fell silent. If Izuru hadn't been so grateful, he might have been a little jealous at Momo's skills with command. "What are you all doing here? Do your guardians know you're playing this close to the river?"

"Yes, they know!" the tallest of the children said. "They told us to go here and not to come back to the village until they called us. They're doing boring adult stuff."

Izuru felt the blood drain from his face. It was subtle, but next to him Renji and Momo shifted from relaxed stances to standing at attention.

"Izuru, you stay with the children. Renji and I will go take a look."

"I-"

"Stay with the children." Momo and Renji set off running before Izuru could voice any further protests, leaving Izuru to stand in the middle of the crowd of wide-eyed children. He sighed.

"Are you the Avatar?"

"W-what?!" Izuru blinked. "No, no I'm not. Why would you think that?"

"She always asks that." It was the tallest of the children who spoke.

The girl who'd spoken first crossed her arms over her chest and raised her chin, as if in defiance. "Because mom said that when the Avatar comes back, everything will be fine again. There won't be a war anymore when the Avatar is found, right?"

Izuru found himself biting his lip to keep from yelling at her. "No one has seen the Avatar in years and years, child. I think we'd better try and stop the war first and then go looking for them."

"Do you think the Avatar is lost?"

The final word in that sentence made Izuru flinch. "Maybe." _Maybe lost forever_. "But whoever they are, they should be about my age, so I'm sure they can take care of themselves. We'll just have to go looking for them when things calm down a bit."

"Oh." The girl looked crestfallen, her lip quivering and her shoulders sagging. She couldn't have been more then six years old.

"But I'm sure-"

The ground began to shake. Bright light cut through the darkness before them, highlighting the roofs of the houses among the hills with an eerie blue glow. Soon after voices could be heard; a mixture of screams of pain and fear, and angry, military voices that sounded like they were barking orders.

Some of the children had begun to cry. The rest stood and stared in open-mouthed shock.

Izuru swallowed. It felt like he had a stone lodged in his throat. "Children, stay close to me and whatever you do, don't run."

******

"Do you have guard duty?"

Rangiku started. She caught sight of a mop of white hair somewhere in the vicinity of her left elbow. Looking down, Captain Hitsugaya's ever serious face came into view. "Not really. I just couldn't sleep."

Hitsugaya gave her a curt nod. Arms crossed over his chest he took up position next to her, staring down at the village below. "Any news?"

There was a heavy pause. Rangiku took a deep breath and fixed her eyes on the distant horizon. "Rebels are moving through the Fire Nation in greater numbers than before. There's talk of overthrowing the Fire Lord. Other than that the Powerful have dug their claws into Republic City completely. That's all the news we have for now, seeing as all our spies are late back with their reports." She dug her toes into the dirt, felt the soft hum of earth under her feet. "Oh, and still no Avatar."

"I see."

The silence that fell over them felt like a wet blanket. Rangiku stole a glance at Hitsugaya and his stoney expression. No one ever dared ask how old he was - at least not to his face - but Rangiku suspected he couldn't be more than fifteen. Neither did she have any idea of what accident it had been that had left his hair all white; she suspected questions wouldn't be welcome.

"Something you wish to ask?"

Rangiku blinked and let out a shaky laugh. Hitsugaya could stare down a polarbeardog if he put his mind to it. "Not really. Was just wondering what you were doing here, if I may ask. You didn't come out here to check on me, did you?"

"The Captain-Commander called a meeting two hours ago. It just finished."

"Ah, I see."

The wet blanket of a silence returned. Rangiku found herself sinking back into her earlier thoughts; not of the rebels or the Powerful, but that of a tangle train of memories that wouldn't straighten themselves out. It felt like grasping at wisps of smoke; a far too familiar feeling.

"If there is anything troubling you, you know I'm always there to...listen."

Rangiku had to stifle a chuckle. It wasn't often Captain Hitsugaya got tongue tied or blushed, which would have been more fitting for his age, surely. When it did happen, it shone such a light on his actual age that she just wanted to give him a hug and tell him to stop being so damn serious all the time. Had the world not been thrown into utter chaos she might have, captain or not.

 _Don't try that "father to your soldiers"-schtick on me, kiddo_ , she thought, eyes remaining locked onto the horizon. _I'm probably almost twice your age._ "Thank you for the offer, sir, but it's really nothing special."

Lies. Of course she was lying. But what else could she say? There was really no explaining these moods that sometimes struck her. They felt almost like déjà vu or as if she'd forgotten something important that she just couldn't put her finger on. The situation out side of the Society didn't do much to dispel the worry once it had dug its claws into her mind. Better just leave it be. It would pass; it always did.

"It's been a long day, sir. I'll keep an eye on things here until the guards switch and then I'm going to hit the hay. Not to be too forward or anything, but I think you should do the same. Looks like that was some meeting you had." The bags under his eyes were darker than they'd been the day before.

Hitsugaya nodded. "Good night to you, Lieutenant."

Rangiku watched him go, a small smile on her face. "Good night, Captain."

The moment he was out of sight she returned to staring at the horizon. The feeling of loss was dissipating, leaving room for calm and relief. The mood changes had never been a permanent thing and yet every time they happened she couldn't help but think that _this time it might not go away._

The sound of a bell being struck echoed from the other side of the village, just loud enough to carry up the hill where she stood. She took off running before the second strike of the bell could be heard. Smoke had begun to rise from the forest up ahead. 

The sound of running footsteps could be heard from all around her. She could see other guards jumping down from trees and roofs around her, cushioning their landings either through bending or acrobatic stunts.

Shuhei Hisagi landed next to her as she ran past the Gathering Hall. He kept even pace with her as they rushed towards the village. "Has there been any word of who the intruders are?"

Rangiku shook her head. "No idea," she said, her mind mostly on the dirt and rocks at her disposal. "But we're about to find out."

******

The earthquake was getting worse. Standing up wasn't difficult, not yet, but Izuru could feel the tremors all the way from his toes to the base of his skull.

The noise had died down. No one was screaming any longer and there was no sound of battle cries or of weapons clashing. The huts and houses lay in darkness; dim, unmoving silhouettes.

A cold sense of dread washed over Izuru. There was no sign of either Momo or Renji, not even smoke or the sound of explosions. The children had gathered closer to him, two of them having grabbed a hold of his legs as if they were safety blankets. Some of them were crying, their sobs drowned out by the rumble of the shaking earth.

"Stay here," Izuru said to the oldest of them, a girl he guessed was about thirteen years old. "I'll go see what's happened."

Gently he dislodged the two children clinging to his legs. One grabbed a hold of his arm instead. "Please don't go."

Izuru hesitated. "I'll only be a moment."

" _Please!_ "

"I-"

"Let him go, Nera," the oldest of the children said. "Someone has to go check on mom and dad, right?"

Nera's lower lip quiver, yet he did as told. Izuru gave the child what he hoped came across as an encouraging smile and then took off. The bushes only reached him to the waist, but in combination with the steep hill, the occasional tree and the darkness, that was plenty enough to obscure his line of sight, as well as slow him down.

It was too quiet. This close to a village there should have been some form of noise, even this late at night, _especially_ after the racket that had taken place only minutes ago.

Taking a calming breath through his nose, Izuru stopped and listened. No one was watching him. He might as well take advantage of the moment. After all, he had children to protect.

Lifting his hands above his head, he was about to start his search, when a scream pierced the stillness. A child's scream, coming from behind him.

 _No!_ Izuru whirled around and pushed his way through the bushes, the thin branches tugging at his legs like so many needle-sharp arms. For each step he could feel the earth tremble, like it had before, but this time it wasn't coming from the village.

"Stay where you are, brats!" he heard a voice call. "One move and you go into the river, understood?"

Izuru ducked low and pushed aside the last of the branches, peeking through the leaves. The children were surrounded by five soldiers. The sign of the Powerful, a circle split into four parts, was painted on the back of their uniform jackets.

"Now," a man with a scruffy excuse of a beard said, grabbing a hold of the oldest child, "You are going to tell me where your secret shelter is, or we throw that one over the edge. Got it?"

All the children were crying; some openly, others, like the oldest, were biting back the tears and shaking with silent sobs. "I don't know."

The soldier backhanded the child. Izuru flinched and gritted his teeth, his hands curling into fists around the branches. He needed to focus, needed to think of strategy. Judging by their insignias, all but one of them were earthbenders; the fifth a firebender. He'd have a chance.

"Better show them we're serious. Hanre, throw the weakling in the water!"

The woman in question stiffened. None of her fellow soldiers, other than the man with the scruffy beard, looked at her as she grabbed Nera by the arm and began pulling him towards the fissure.

Izuru's blood froze to ice in his veins. He'd seen the Powerful do horrible things, yes, but these were _children_! 

He let go of the bushes and reached out, felt the water in the river flow. Just as the soldier pushed Nera over the edge, a pillar of water rose up and pushed him back.

"Who is-?!"

"I am!" Izuru stood up and gestured for another pillar of water, sending three of the soldiers crashing into a tree. "Let the children go and fight someone your own size, cowards!"

The children were already running. The oldest grabbed Nera, dragging him off of the female soldier. 

"After them!" the soldier with the scruffy beard shouted. "They'll lead us to the shelter. I'll take care of this one."

"I don't think so." Izuru's voice was far steadier than he thought it'd be. The shaking of the earth was getting worse and he'd only managed to knock out one of the soldiers. The other two were getting to their feet, as was the soldier that had tried to kill Nera. Four against one weren't good odds.

"Go after the brats!" the soldier with the scruffy beard said to one of his fellows. He then turned to look at Izuru. "Tough guy, eh? Son, you look about as intimidating as a shaking leaf. If you weren't a bender, I'd have crushed you right away."

Izuru fought the urge to swallow. Hopefully he could play this to his advantage. If not, then...

"All I've felt so far is a little trembling," he said, pulling two globes of water to him. "Hardly impressive. You sure you're worthy of that uniform?"

A dark look crossed the soldier's face. "You're asking for it."

Izuru jumped, avoiding the swiftly rising wall of earth with a hair's breadth. The water in his hands shifted into the rough shape of a sword. He cut the next wall off at the root, sending it tumbling towards the soldiers by the tree.

Next, he froze the water and sent it speeding towards the soldiers' leader in a cloud of thin needles. A wall of dirt broke their path, summoned up by their intended target.

Out of the corner of his eye Izuru caught sight of the children. They were hiding among the bushes, the soldier who'd tried to kill Nera nowhere to be seen. They must have double back, tricked her into losing track of them. Clever.

"Filthy scum like you are the worst," the soldier with the scruffy beard said, letting his earth shield shatter and crumbled to the ground. Izuru pulled the water back to himself, surrounding his hands with it. The other earthbender and the firebender were on their feet now, making their way to flank Izuru from behind. In a moment he'd be trapped.

" _I'm_ scum?" Izuru said, taking a step further away from the bushes, but stopped short. If he fled that way they'd find the children, and if he jumped into the river he'd leave the children on their own. "I just stopped you from murdering children. Excuse me if I don't feel too much remorse."

"There's no talking to you soft-hearts," the firebender said. A flame lit in the palm of her hand, dancing there in a taunting manner. "You see one of the weaklings' children and think of it as a real child. It's pitiful."

"He's got to be from the Society, like the other two."

Nausea had reappeared with a vengeance. It was their eyes. Izuru had seen plenty of soldiers in his twenty-five years among the living. He'd learned long ago that body language in itself wasn't a reliable source of emotional information when it came to people who fought and killed on a daily basis. Usually, the front line soldiers came in two variations; hardened soldiers who'd numbed themselves to reality and the ones in permanent denial. These, however, were far too cheerful, with wide, shining eyes.

Fanatics.

The three of them had formed a triangle around him. The two he'd slammed against the tree formed the base of it behind him, while their leader remained by the fissure, becoming the triangle's point.

"You didn't answer the question."

Izuru let the water circle his hands. "You didn't ask anything."

The soldiers' leader grinned at him. "The other two, the Society scum, you with them?"

Images of Momo and Renji flashed before Izuru's mind. There hadn't been a single explosion for at least an hour. Then again, the soldiers were looking for the villagers, which meant at least some of them had escaped and hid away.

"No comment." He pulled. The water that rose from the river drenched all three of the enemy soldiers. As they spluttered Izuru ducked out of their way. Their leader had encased his feet in rock, leaving him standing in place - no doubt with painful bruises around his ankles - and the other two ended up in the bushes, fairly unharmed.

Izuru ran for the children. They were huddled together like baby bird in a nest during a storm, staring up at him with terror in their eyes. "Tell me where the shelter is, then run!"

"I-it's under the mill," the oldest of the children whispered.

Izuru turned around, making sure to keep all three soldiers in his line of sight. They were getting back on their feet - or in their leader's case, freeing his feet - but far enough away to not overhear their conversation. "Good, go there. I'll make sure they don't follow you and come join you when I've lost them. Understood?"

Shaky nods was all he got in reply. Some of them had begun to cry again, but silently this time, tears rolling down their cheeks without being accompanied by sobs.

 _Children of war don't believe even the kindest of lies_ , Izuru thought bitterly as they darted off into the bushes. His heart was hammering like that of a hunted rabbit-mouse. The soldiers had formed a half-circle in front of him and the earth was trembling even worse now. He could barely keep on his feet.

"Don't think it'll be that easy!" the soldiers' leader shouted, stomping his foot. If he hadn't been an earthbender, the gesture would have looked petulant and childish. As it was a wave of destruction rushed from the point of impact, chasing after the children.

Ice needles flew for the soldiers' throats. Izuru turned left and right, sending bundle after bundle of ice towards his opponents. They gave as good as they got, sending rocks and fire his way. Behind him, Izuru caught a glance of the children fleeing out of harm's way.

A rock hit Izuru on the shoulder, just as an ice needle buried itself in the firebender's leg. Izuru stumbled and fell, landing on one knee. Pain radiated from his injured shoulder, leaving his left arm numb and useless; broken.

"Get up, traitor!" the soldiers' leader said, grin wide and demented. "At least fight with the courage your powers demand."

Izuru struggled to his feet. He opened his mouth, searching his blank mind for something to reply with, when a scream froze him in place. Looking over his shoulder, he caught sight of Nera crashing out of the bushes, the female soldier hot on the child's heels.

A couple of more rocks came flying Izuru's way, but he barely noticed them enough to dodge. His attention was fixed on Nera and the way the grass was bulging under his feet. The ground was cracking. With three earthbenders pulling pieces out of it, the cliff side was seconds away from giving up.

The fissure was about to grow a lot wider.

"Get away!" Izuru shouted, taking a few stumbling steps towards the bushes. The rumbling of the earth drowned him out. He could just as well have been a bug buzzing in the ear of a deaf cow-sheep. "Stop! You'll kill us all!"

Nera was coming closer by the second. He'd been at the top of the hill a mere moment ago, but now he was almost with in arm's reach from Izuru. And the soldier behind him was gaining on him.

There was no longer a choice.

Izuru caught himself against a tree and closed his eyes. He wouldn't be needing sight for this.

The outline of the soldiers were the first to meet his senses. Benders were always easier to find, though he'd never been taught the reason why that was. Nera was a dimmer presence, a small shape of water somewhere to his right, traveling far too swiftly towards the river.

With no full moon to aid him it took Izuru's full concentration just to stop them all in their tracks. He could feel them fighting him, the struggle of their muscles pulling at the water in their blood. Only one - the unconscious soldier - was a dead weight. The strain on Izuru's bending was enough to make his own muscles ache.

The earth was still crumbling. He'd been too late.

His eyes flew open as he felt the ground beneath his feet begin to give. Around him the soldiers and Nera were suspended in midair, their eyes wide and their expressions ones of horror. Ignoring them, Izuru threw himself backwards, sending the other six flying into the forest. He felt them touch ground, took a deep breath, and threw himself forward. All but Nera went flying again, hitting the grass on the other side of the fissure.

Izuru sank down. He knew he shouldn't. The dirt beneath him would go tumbling into the river at any second and he'd follow it down. Weak, always so cursed weak! He needed to heal himself and get away, quickly, or he'd-

_Strange, it feels like I'm float-_


	2. Chapter 2

Rangiku was out of breath by the time she arrived at the epicenter of the attack. There were fallen trees and scorched dirt everywhere, along with a few confused guards. 

"Where are the intruders?" she asked the one standing closest to her - a member of the eleventh Squad, if she wasn't mistaken.

"No clue," he muttered in answer, squatting down to trace the edge of footprint with a finger. "They ran that way." He pointed into the woods, away from the village. "We got orders to stay here and guard."

"I haven't got any such orders," Rangiku said, giving the man a wink. He shrugged and stepped back, as if to give her permission to leave. She rolled her eyes at him, then gave Shuhei a nod to get him to follow.

The forest was pitch black at this time of night, but Rangiku knew it as well as her own apartment; probably better. The intruders clearly had little knowledge of moving in the woods, as they'd left a trail of broken branches and stepped in more than one puddle of mud.

Shuhei followed close behind her as she took up the chase, wordlessly keeping an eye out for any ambushes that might be lurking in their path.

Finding the intruders was actually quite anticlimactic. Rangiku pulled aside yet another low-hanging branch and there they were, slumped against a rock in a glade.

They were little more than boys, the two of them. One looked to be either unconscious or dead, slumped on the ground in an unmoving heap. Rangiku paid him little mind, even though his clothes set her teeth on edge. Few Equalists dared proclaim their loyalties so openly, but this one had their symbol brocaded on every available piece of fabric he wore.

Still, that was only a passing thought. She was far too busy studying the conscious boy to bother with the one that wasn't a threat. Sixteen was her guess, when it came to age. Eighteen maybe, if she was generous. He was sitting up, leaning against the man-sized rock, one arm wrapped around his own waist, as if to shield a wound. Unlike his companion he wore no insignia at all, Equalist or otherwise. Judging by his clothes he was from some small mountain village, not far from there.

A tap on her shoulder alerted Rangiku to the fact that Shuhei was done checking for hidden enemies. The coast was clear.

Without hesitation, she stepped out into the glade.

She'd expected some sort of flinching or cowering from the boy. She had to admit she was a bit impressed when all he did at the sight of her was clench his jaw and bark: "Don't attack us!"

"Who do you think you are brat, giving out orders like that?" Rangiku called to him. She'd made herself a stone dagger to hold. Behind her Shuhei was no doubt holding his chain-sickles in a very threatening manner. "Did you think we'd let you get away with attacking our village, boy?"

"We didn't attack you!" the boy said, staggering to his feet. There was blood leaking out from under his arm, coloring his clothes an even darker shade of red. "Your people jumped us the moment they saw us. We just defended ourselves."

Rangiku took him in. His skin was terribly pale, most likely due to blood loss, which made his orange hair stand out even more than it would have under normal circumstances. He was keeping on his feet, but just barely. "And what was your business in our village, if not to attack it?" she asked him, taking a step closer. Behind her back she signaled Shuhei to go get a healer.

"We came for aid," the boy said, spitting the words at her through gritted teeth. "Our village is under attack."

"Who's attacking you?" Rangiku gave the unconscious boy's clothes a meaningful look.

"We're not Equalists," the boy hurried to say, following her gaze. "Well, he sort of his. Eh, it's hard to explain. But we're not here to fight you. I'm a friend of Rukia, Rukia Kuchiki. Waterbender, quite short."

Rangiku blinked. _Lieutenant Kuchiki has **friends**?!_ "Huh."

"If you take me to her, she can tell you it's true."

Taking a few steps further into the glade, Rangiku let the stone dagger crumbled back into a pile of pebbles. "Hope for your sake that you're telling the truth. Lieutenant Kuchiki isn't all that lenient with people who try to sneak in using her as an excuse." _Not that that's ever happened before. Almost anyone would have been a better candidate for cover._

The boy chuckled. "I can believe that. When she was visiting the village she spent most of her time yelling at me. She also draws really ugly rabbit-mice on everything."

"You've done your research," Rangiku said. "What's your name?"

"Ichigo Kurosaki. And that," the boy said, nudging at the other boy with his foot, "is Uryu Ishida. He's alive, if you were wondering."

"Ishida?" _Why is that name so familiar?_

The boy - Kurosaki - nodded his head, his eyes losing focus for a brief moment. "Yeah." He tensed, his gaze focusing on something over Rangiku's shoulder. The lack of a shiver down her own spine told her it was her own people who'd sneaked up on her.

A young man from the fourth Squad hurried past her, a bag of medical equipment slung over one shoulder. He met Kurosaki's suspicious glare with a shy, nervous smile, before kneeling down next to Ishida.

"Orders?" Rangiku asked no one in particular, eyes on Kurosaki.

Shuhei appeared next to her, melting out of the shadows. "We're taking them to the Captain-Commander."

Rangiku couldn't help but let out an impressed whistle. "Not bad, Kurosaki. You got the attention of the man in charge himself."

This pulled Kurosaki's attention away from the healing of Ishida. "Is that good?" he asked, frowning.

"We're about to find out."

******

His shoulder ached. It was a dull, throbbing pain, and Izuru was sure it should have been worse. His memory was a bit hazy toward the end, but he clearly recalled having his left shoulder blade crushed by a rock. In his experience broken bones hurt a lot more than the sensation he currently was experiencing.

"You awake?"

The voice was unfamiliar. Izuru cracked one eye open and was met by the sight of the blue sky and branches covered with leaves.

"Would you like something to eat?"

Izuru turned his head toward the voice. There was a man sitting on a rock a few feet away. The sight of him sent a bolt of something down Izuru's spine. He couldn't quite categorize the emotion; it wasn't attraction, though the man was fairly attractive, nor was it fear, even if the man seemed to radiate an aura of sorts that was anything but pleasant.

Maybe it was the smile. The man looked amused, with a thin yet wide smile on his lips and his eyes half-closed, like a very pleased cat-monkey. The impression could have been that of cheer, if it hadn't been for...

Izuru closed his eyes again. He wasn't making sense, even to himself. Marking complete strangers as suspicious just for smiling. He truly was getting paranoid.

"Yes, please," he finally answered, once his thoughts had calmed down and lined up in some semblance of order. He opened both his eyes. "Were you the one who tended to my shoulder?"

The man took a ladle from a pot he'd been watching, which was suspended over a modest camp fire. Picking up a bowl from the ground, he poured three scoops of soup into it, then got up from the rock and headed over to Izuru's side. "Drink slowly."

Izuru waited until the man had helped him sit up to try and drink the soup. It was warm, spicy and reminded him a little of home.

"I did tend to your wounds, yes," the man said, watching Izuru eat with keen interest. "I fear I'm not a healer or a doctor, so all I could do was bandage it and give you some soothing herbs. I've been waiting for you to wake up and fix the rest yourself."

Izuru choked on the soup. Coughing it back up made the ache in his shoulder worse, but he hardly noticed. "How did you know I'm a waterbender?"

The man's grin turned positively feral. "I saw your little fight. Quite impressive, bloodbending without a full moon. Guess you were born from one of those bloodlines, right?"

"You saw that?!" All Izuru's blood rushed from his brain to his feet. The world was slipping out of focus, leaving him lightheaded and nauseous.

"Yes, I saw," the man answered, his grin shrinking back into its thinner version. "And I'm pretty sure I wasn't the only one watching. But don't worry, I won't send you to the wolf-lizards."

Izuru sat stock still, unable to do more than stare at the other man, who'd turned his attention to stirring the soup.

"You're not?" A stupid question, perhaps, but it was the only thing Izuru could think to say. There were rewards put out on bloodbenders, all over the world. Hefty rewards. Few required the bloodbender to be breathing.

"I said I wouldn't, didn't I?" The man looked up from the soup. "You've been out of it for a day and a half. I've had plenty of time to drag you to a village and have you locked up somewhere. Is that proof enough?"

Izuru pressed his lips together until they were little more than thin, white lines. There was no way to tell if the man was lying. His expression barely changed and his eyes - what little of them he could see - were unreadable. But what choice did he have?

"All right, I believe you. Again, thank you."

"No need to mention it," the man said, shrugging. "So, what's your name?"

The question caught Izuru off guard. His mind was buzzing with adrenaline and possible escape plans. Such a mundane thing didn't fit with his panic. "I-I am Izuru Kira."

The man nodded, as if the name pleased him. "Nice to meet you, Izuru Kira! I am Gin Ichimaru. You can call me Gin, if you want. Can I call you Izuru?"

Izuru blinked a few times, in rapid succession. "Eh, yes, of course, if you think it's-"

"Never been one to stand on ceremony," Gin said, pouring a bowl of soup for himself. "I'd drive myself mad addressing you by your last name, and whatever titles you might have gotten your hands on, all the way to the Society."

This time, Izuru's back stiffened. He set up as straight and quickly as his broken shoulder allowed. "You know about the Society?"

Something mocking brushed over Gin's ever present smile. "The last, hidden line of defense against the Powerful and the Equalists alike? Of course I know of them. Everybody does."

"But you know _where_ they are and that I'm going there." Izuru allowed himself to glance around their camp. They were set up on the bank of a river - much smaller and calmer than the one he'd fallen into and there was no fissure, only a very tiny beach - in the middle of a forest. No landmarks he recognized in sight.

"I might have visited, once or twice," Gin said. "It's well hidden, but they don't keep it completely secret. Wouldn't get any new recruits if it was, would they? As for knowing about your journey there, your opponents were quite vocal."

"I guess that makes sense." Izuru moved to steady himself and flinched when he brushed against the ground with his left arm. Whatever herbs he'd been given were strong - he could barely feel the pain - but not strong enough to completely numb him.

"I almost forgot!" Gin got up from his seat again and picked up a bucket, before heading over to the river. He filled it, then place it next to Izuru. "Water, for your arm."

"Ah, yes, thank you." The mere sight of the water, the anticipation of the healing, did wonders for Izuru's nerves. He'd always loved this part of waterbending best. It was soothing work and the knowledge that he was bringing relief to someone - even if it only was himself - made up for many things.

"So polite!" Gin laughed. "I think we'll get along well, Izuru."

The inflection of that sentence made Izuru look up. If Gin had winked at him, he'd missed it. "I'm glad to hear that," he said, unsure if he should return the smile or not. He decided not to. As shaken as he was it would most likely have turned into a grimace.

The water followed his hands and settled around his wounded shoulder with ease. He could do this in his sleep.

Gin appeared to be transfixed by the glow of the water, once more curled up on his rock. Izuru chose to ignore him, letting himself relax for the first time since he'd lost sight of Momo and Renji. The pain in his shoulder was fading, replaced with the soft warmth of chi.

The sun rose above the trees before Izuru was done, bathing the campsite in a glow to match that of the water. Izuru opened his eyes as he felt the sun on his face and let the water fall back into the bucket. Gin was sitting where he had been when Izuru had begun healing himself, expression unchanged.

"Is it easier to heal your own injuries, rather than others'?" Gin asked, uncurling from his rock.

Izuru ducked his head. There was something unsettling about Gin's eyes. There was no fanatical glint in them, nor the piercing quality his grandfather and several military people he'd met possessed, and yet he had trouble meeting them with his own.

"Yes and no," Izuru chose to answer, distracting himself by pouring the water back into the river. "Concentration is a little more difficult, especially if it's a painful injury, and the sensation of manipulating your own body takes a while getting used to. But since I can feel all that I'm doing, I know directly if I'm doing something right or wrong."

"I see."

Izuru fought the urge to say 'Do you?', and succeeded.

Gin got up again. The constant moving about should have seemed aimless and nervous, but the way that Gin held himself negated that impression. "Well, I'll feel much safer traveling with a skilled healer like you. Is your shoulder whole again?"

"Good as new," Izuru answered, daring to smile a little. Gin had, after all, saved his life and been nothing but kind to him; thus far.

"Shall we get going then? The next village isn't far from here and I don't know about you, but I'd prefer to sleep in a bed tonight."

A bed. Izuru hadn't seen a bed in a month. Just the thought of sleeping in one was comforting. "That sounds like an agreeable idea. Do you need help carrying anything?"

"Not really," Gin said. "I found the campsite like this. Must be something the locals put here for passing travelers. All that's mine are the clothes on my back and this bag here." He held up a satchel, too small to contain more than a change of clothes and some assorted trinkets. "And the soup, of course, but I think I'll rather pour that out. Bit too soggy to bring along."

"...of course."

The cleaning up of the campsite took less than a minute. Gin emptied the pot among the bushes and then took the lead without a word, walking at an easy pace. The road was little more than a forest path, but it was easy enough to travel with no branches or roots to get in the way. 

Walking two steps behind Gin - which felt strangely natural - Izuru let his gaze lock onto the back of the man's head. His hair was an odd silvery gray in color, and yet he couldn't be much older than Izuru himself. His clothes were fairly odd too; bulky, brightly colored and with far more layers than were suitable even now that fall was moving in over the land. At least he didn't look to be carrying any weapons.

They walked in comfortable silence for an hour. The Red Mountains came into view. Izuru's heart fell. He must have floated far downriver.

His eyes returned to the back of Gin's head, as if drawn there by a magnet. _Lucky that he found me, or I'd surely have drowned! He must have jump in after me. Renji will never let me live that dow-_

The thought brought Izuru up short. He stumbled and nearly stopped, which earned him a curious glance over the shoulder from Gin. Izuru quickly lowered his gaze and shrugged, trying not to show any sign of panic. _They can't be dead, don't be silly,_ he thought to himself. _Renji and Momo are probably looking for **you** right now. You're a clumsy idiot, setting us behind schedule like this._

That called his mind away to other matters. _I wonder if they make it to the Society before me?_ If they'd make it there at all. _Of course they'll make it. They're good fighters._

And with this thought forced to the front of his mind, Izuru followed Gin into the village ahead.

******

There was nothing more boring in life than Council Meetings. With no booze, no breaks and no talking unless it was your turn, it was basically pure torture if the subject on the agenda wasn't interesting.

Thankfully the topic of the day was the intruders. Rangiku sent a thought to the Spirit World in gratitude for her excellent view of the proceedings. Belonging to the tenth Squad usually meant having to stare at the Captain-Commander while he stared right back; no way to fall asleep during a meeting that way. The Captain-Commander was always the first one to arrive and the last to leave. He'd taken his seat at the far end of the room, long before any other member of the meeting had entered.

Speaking of old Yamamoto, he looked positively on edge. It wasn't easy to tell from just looking at him, but having grown up in the Society Rangiku had learned to look for the small signs. He always sat with his back straight, but today he was overly formal, having put his hands on his desk instead of resting them on his legs. His gaze was more intense as well, fixed on the two prisoners, when he usually took his time to scrutinize every Captain and Lieutenant in the room.

The prisoners, on the other hand, were open books. Tied hand and foot, standing in the middle of the Gathering Hall, they both looked ready to kill someone. Kurosaki's jaw was clenched shut - tightly enough that Rangiku was surprised she hadn't heard it break yet - while Ishida was trying to glare a hole in the Captain-Commander's head.

"Order," the Captain-Commander said, even though the room was silent as the grave. That probably had something to do with the fact that Captain Zaraki and his Lieutenant hadn't arrived yet. Not an unusual occurrence. "We have gathered today to decide the fates of these two young men. I will give them permission to speak first, and then any who will speak for or against them will be allowed to voice their opinions. Are there any questions?"

More silence. Rangiku took note that only Captain Ukitake sat at the thirteenth Squad's table. _Strange. Lieutenant Kuchiki isn't one to be late. A mission?_

"What is your business here?" The Captain-Commander's deep voice echoed through the hall like the blow from a sledgehammer. Rangiku had to give the intruders props for not flinching too much.

"I've already told you!" Kurosaki said, unlocking his jaw enough to speak. "We're here to get help! Our village, Karakura, was attacked by the Powerful last week. Isn't it your job to help people in need?!"

"That may be true, but we're also the target for many people who wish to send us into traps," the Captain-Commander said. "Who gave you the directions to the Society?"

"Rukia Kuchiki."

The Captain-Commander glanced towards Captain Ukitake, who shook his head. "Seeing as the Lieutenant isn't here to either deny or confirm your claim, clearing that up will have to wait. What are your names?"

"I am Ichigo Kurosaki."

"I am Uryu Ishida."

A murmur went through the gathered crowd. Rangiku chance a glance at her own Captain, who seemed more confused by the murmuring than ready to partake in it.

The Captain-Commander ushered for silence. "Who are your parents?"

Interesting. While Kurosaki seemed unfazed by the question, Ishida stiffened, as if he'd been struck by lightning.

Kurosaki was the first to answer. "Masaki and Isshin Kurosaki. My mother's been dead for a long time. My father's a doctor."

All eyes turned to stare at Ishida. Even Kurosaki was looking over his shoulder at his companion, something questioning in his gaze.

Ishida swallowed; a small movement, undetectable for anyone who wasn't looking for it. "My mother's name is not important. My father is Ryuken Ishida, also a doctor. My grandfather was Soken Ishida."

The murmur that went through the hall this time must have been heard out on the streets. Rangiku sat up straight and silently cursed her poor memory. There was something she was missing, something big.

"The Bowmen of the Equalists," someone to her right whispered.

_The Bowmen?!_ Rangiku's thoughts were spinning in loops. _Avatar Korra was supposed to have disbanded them decades ago! How...?_

"I didn't come here as a Bowman!" Ishida said, managing to make himself heard over the din around him. "We came here in peace, to seek help, just as Kurosaki said. Curse it, Kurosaki is a _firebender_! Would I associate with the likes of him if there wasn't a crisis?"

"Hmm." How the Captain-Commander always made his humming heard, no matter what kind of noise he was surrounded by, Rangiku suspected she'd never know. "Then why did you challenge our guards to a fight?"

"We didn't challenge anyone!" Kurosaki cut in. "It was your guards who attacked us!"

The silence that fell over the hall this time was one of anticipation. "And what did these guards look like?" 

"Tall, spiky hair, utterly mad," Ishida answered. "He had a small girl sitting on one of his shoulders. We tried to reason with him, but he wouldn't call for any of his superiors and he was very intent on killing us. Only reason we survived was that we managed to lose him in the woods."

Had the Captain-Commander not been watching, Rangiku suspected the entire hall would have slammed their heads against their tables. _How typical of Captain Zaraki._

"Very well," the Captain-Commander said. "I will withdraw the accusations against you when it comes to having attacked our village. However, you may still be spies. Until Lieutenant Kuchiki returns there is no way for us to know if you're speaking the truth. I therefore decide that you shall me kept under guard until it is possible for us to determine your intentions."

"You can't-!"

"Oh, but I can, boy." The Captain-Commander's gaze was cold as ice, silencing Kurosaki with ease. "Does anyone have anything to add on this?"

Rangiku put her hand up, earning herself more than a few odd looks. "I volunteer to be one of their guards."

The Captain-Commander's face twitched in a gesture that on anyone else's face would have been a raised eyebrow. "Is there any particular reason you think these two _boys_ are in need of guards of your rank, Lieutenant Matsumoto?"

Rangiku didn't as much as blink. "They spent a quarter of an hour locked in combat with Captain Zaraki and survived. I think that's all the information we need regarding their skills."

"Point taken. Is there anyone else who wishes to speak?"

Captain Aizen looked like he wanted to put his hand up, but just smiled and shook his head when the Captain-Commander looked his way. Rangiku found herself studying him, her chin rested in her hand. Aizen was a man of peace and kindness, much like Ukitake. If anyone could help solve this without bloodshed it was him. She'd have to go check with him later, once the prisoners were settled.

The Captain-Commander tapped the hilt of his sword against his desk. "This meeting is adjourned."

******

Apparently it wasn't just Izuru's nerves playing pranks on him. Everyone seemed to be unsettled by Gin. The moment they'd entered the village people had begun staring. At first Izuru had been worried they'd wandered into the village from the night before, but he'd soon noticed that they weren't staring at _him_. In fact, they barely noticed him.

"Have you been here before, Ichi-, Gin?" he asked, when the third stall vendor had done her best to stare at them without actually looking at them.

"Never in my life," Gin answered, his tone of voice singsong like. "I've mostly traveled north of here. Ah, I think there's an inn over there that we can rent a room at."

There was indeed an inn, right down at the end of the street. It appeared to be empty of staff, at least at first glance. A second, closer look revealed that the people inside seemed to be trying to keep from making any sudden movements, without standing completely still.

Izuru's hand moved to his belt. His money pouch wasn't there. He could feel the blood drain from his face.

"Oh, I forgot to give you this back." Gin opened his bag and threw Izuru a very familiar pouch. "You almost lost it in the river. You should practice tying better knots."

Izuru barely noticed the weight of the pouch. He was too busy gaping at Gin. _Can he read minds?!_

"You were grabbing at your belt and then looked very upset," Gin said, smile quirking up into a lopsided grin. "Doesn't take psychic powers to figure out what you were looking for. And before you ask, your jaw hitting the ground was a big clue to your current thoughts. Don't panic."

Izuru gave a nervous laugh. "I see. I'm sorry for, well..."

"No hard feelings," Gin said. "You should count your money now, to see that I haven't stolen any."

"I-I don't think you'd-"

"Then there's no insult in counting them. I insist!"

Izuru gulped. _What do I do if he **has** stolen from me? Or if I lost some in the river? There's no way of knowing!_ "H-here?"

Gin turned his head left and right, as if taking in the village's main road - not much of a road really - and the ramshackle houses. "Here is as good a place as any."

"All right." Careful not to let any of the coins spill out, Izuru untied the string around the pouch. He poured the coins out five at the time, placing them on the ground in piles of ten. He could sense that they'd gotten some curious onlookers.

When all the coins were out of the bag, Gin whistled. "Four hundred yuan. That's quite impressive!"

"Not so loud!" Izuru could feel the eyes on them moving closer.

Gin waved his hand up and down in a calming gesture. "Mah, don't be so paranoid, Izuru. I'm sure these lovely ladies just want to give us directions to a restaurant."

Heart pounding in his ears, Izuru slowly turned to look over his shoulder. The 'lovely ladies' in question were dressed in clothes that screamed 'mercenaries' and they weren't the least bit subtle about the weapons they were carrying. 

"Four hundred yuan, is that right?" the tallest of them said, her voice half muffled by the cigar she was chewing on. "Would you mind making a donation to the less fortunate of our village?"

"Do you mean the poor people who have to have you as their daughter?" Gin asked, smiling.

Izuru cowered. He couldn't sense any water close by - not even a bucket or a puddle - and the women had pistols; one of them currently aimed at Gin's head.

"No reason to get cute with me, pretty boy," the one holding the pistol said. "Just hand the money over and you'll be free to go find yourself a place to sleep for the night. I heard the stables aren't too overcrowded yet."

The hair at the back of Izuru's neck stood on end as she turned to look at him. "We might as well take him and the money. Heard rumors that the military in Naresha has a reward out on a fellow that looks just like him."

Gin moved like a snake-fox. One second there was a pistol barrel trained at his head, the next the weapon was in his hand and the woman had doubled over, clutching at her broken wrist.

"This man is under my protection," Gin said, taking a step to the side, putting himself right between Izuru and the mercenaries. "I'd strongly advice against trying to take him anywhere against his will. It wouldn't end well for you."

"You bastard!" the tallest of the women said. She'd bitten straight through her cigar.

Gin's smile was unshaken. "I wouldn't draw if I were you. You saw how fast I am. Pulling triggers is far easier than breaking bones." 

Izuru hurried to put the coins back in the pouch, attention split between Gin and the mercenaries. _He's so brave._ It was a silly thought, a thing school boys think about war heroes or the adventures of long dead Avatars. It was still stuck in his mind, though. _And skilled! I've never seen anyone use a fighting style like that._

"Now, why don't you four leave us to go on our merry way?

"I don't think so."


	3. Chapter 3

"So, you born here or did you live somewhere else growing up?"

Rangiku looked up from the game of cards she, Shuhei and Ikkaku were playing. "Huh?"

Kurosaki had seated himself on the bench closest to the bars of his cell and was now looking straight at her. Ishida was still seething in the corner of the cell, no doubt glaring holes in the wall.

"I said, where did you live before you got here?" Kurosaki said. The only clue to his frustration was the slightly raised volume of his voice.

Rangiku shrugged, mindful to not let Ikkaku have a chance to glance at her hand. "I have no idea."

"Huh?"

"Mind your own business, brat!" Ikkaku grumbled. "Asking your guards personal questions like that, it's rude, don't you know?"

Kurosaki turned to glare at Ikkaku, while Rangiku merely shrugged. "I don't mind explaining," she said. 

"Your choice," Shuhei said, eyes on his cards. "Stay out of it, Ikkaku. We've had enough property damage today."

Ikkaku huffed. "Fine. Just trying to help."

"So what did you mean?" Kurosaki asked, attention once more on Rangiku.

"I've been living here most of my life," Rangiku said. "Since I was twelve or thirteen, I think."

Kurosaki frowned. "You think?"

"Memory loss." Rangiku tapped her knuckles against her temple. "Can't remember a thing before I woke up here. Apparently someone had tried to smash my head in with a rock. Lucky me that the people here found me in time, or more than my memory would have been lost."

"Eh, wow..." Kurosaki's eyes turned to the floor and he brought a hand up to rub at the back of his neck. "Sorry to open up old wounds."

Ikkaku opened his mouth as if to say something. Rangiku stepped on his foot before he could, then said: "It's fine. You had no way of knowing. Doesn't really matter much either." She put one card down on the table and picked a new from the stack, keeping track of Kurosaki out of the corner of her eye. "Why did you ask?"

"No reason, really," Kurosaki said to the floor.

"Not trying to gather sympathy for your cause with a little 'what if it was your home village'-talk?"

No answer.

"I call," Rangiku said and threw her cards down on the table. Ikkaku swore and threw his cards down, while Shuhei merely sighed and put his down gently. Rangiku chuckled and scraped up her winnings. She still kept an eye on Kurosaki and did her best not to let his slumped shoulders and aura of defeat tug at her heartstrings.

"It's just..." They all stopped and turned to look at Kurosaki, whose eyes remained locked on the floor. "Our village is neutral and has next to no warriors. We have some shelters, but..." He sighed. "But I get it. You guys can't risk the wrong people finding out about your home. I wouldn't risk it either, if it was my village at stake."

They watched him retreat to the back of the cell without saying a word. Ishida edged away from Kurosaki as he sat down on the bed. The two of them ended up unmoving, staring out the barred window.

Without comment, Rangiku took the deck of cards and began shuffling them, silencing Ikkaku with a stern look. _Poor kid. I hope Lieutenant Kuchiki comes back soon._

******

Izuru slowly got to his feet and turned around towards the new voice. Gin didn't move a muscle. "And you would be?"

The owner of the new voice was a middle-aged woman, dressed in clothes mostly worn by the richer people of the Earth Kingdom. "These here women are working for me," she said and folded her quite muscular arms over her chest. "I don't appreciate them having their work interrupted."

"They shouldn't go waving guns at strangers if they didn't want them taken away," Gin said, calm as a lake on a windless day.

_How does he do that?_ Izuru thought, his legs shaking hard enough to knock his knees together. _I'm so useless. No water and I'm a sitting turtle-duck._ His legs stilled and grew heavy instead. I need to think of **some** way to help!

"You wanna take me on, boy?" the middle-aged woman said, spreading her arms as if to show herself off. "Fighting me ain't no walk in the park, so you'd better be sure before you answer."

Gin shrugged. "I'm sure I'll be fine. Izuru?"

"Y-yes?"

"Could you hold this for me, please?"

Izuru took the pistol out of Gin's hands, then almost dropped it, his numb fingers refusing to properly wrap around the weapon. "I think she's an earthbender," he whispered, trying to catch and hold Gin's gaze. He looked far too uncaring about the whole situation.

"Earthbender, yes," Gin said. "Not the Avatar. I'll be fine."

"But-"

Gin hushed him with the wave of a hand. "No time for arguing. You know how to use one of those?"

Izuru stared down at the gun as if it were a platypus-bear, ready to strike. "Yes. In theory."

"Good! Think of this as gaining some real life experience. Keep it aimed at our audience over there so they don't do anything stupid." Gin's smile took on a soft, encouraging air for the briefest of seconds. "I trust you to have my back."

To his embarrassment Izuru felt blood rush to his face. He must have been as red as a tomato. "I-I'll do my best."

Gin gave him a pat on the shoulder, which had Izuru clutching the pistol tighter. "I'm counting on you! Now, how are we doing this?"

The middle-aged woman smirked. She unclasped the cloak from around her neck and let it fall to the ground. "One on one, to first blood. If you can cut me, you deserve to pass with your money left in your pockets."

"Very well." Gin didn't mimic her gesture, keeping his wide armed jacket-cape on. If Izuru hadn't seen him move so swiftly before, he would have been worried about Gin getting tangled up in the orange monstrosity of a garment.

"You four, stay out of it."

The mercenaries grumbled, but took a step back. Izuru did his best to keep the gun aimed at them, while simultaneously keeping his attention on Gin and the middle-aged woman. They were circling each other, slowly, each having chosen a very different battle stance.

"You have a name, boy?" the woman asked, stamping her foot. 

Gin spun out of the way of the rock projectiles that went flying his way. "Gin Ichimaru. Who is it I have the pleasure of fighting?"

"Chirane Letro. Do you just dance, Gin, or will there be some actual fighting take place here?"

"You'll see."

Izuru held his breath as Gin ducked another attack, then jumped up on the roof of a nearby stall. He rushed over the heads of the vendors, avoiding Letro's rocks as easily as a cat-monkey jumped out of the way of thrown shoes.

"Stop jumping around, you coward!" Letro said, stomping up a crack in the ground wide enough for a child to fall in and disappear. "You won't be drawing any blood halfway across the village!"

Gin chuckled. "You seem very sure about that."

There was no way to follow his movements. Izuru gasped as Gin rushed down from the stall and right into Letro's personal space. He stopped right in front of her and poked a finger against her forehead, before retreating a few steps, whirling out of the way of her jabs and punches.

It was like watching a dancer. While Letro's movements were heavy and direct, Gin was light on his feet to the point where you could have been fooled that he forgot to touch the ground at times. Each movement was fluid and graceful, with an almost playful quality to them.

Gin's expression took away some of the grace of the fight. He wasn't laughing out loud, but by the way his shoulders were shaking Izuru got the impression he was enjoying himself a lot. He highly doubted it had anything to do with crying.

"You're quite good, kid," Letro said after a long while, very much out of breath. "Who taught you?"

"That's a se~cre~t," Gin singsonged, dodging another blow. "And I believe I just won."

"Wha-?"

A gash had appeared on Letro's right cheek, going all the way from her ear to her chin. It was a thin thing, leaking only a few drops of blood. Izuru tore his eyes away from it the second he heard rattling from the mercenaries' direction. They'd all drawn their pistols and were pointing them at Gin.

"Stop!" Izuru found himself shouting. "Ms. Letro set the rules, she should abide by them! If you shoot either of us now, you'll just prove yourselves to be backstabbing cowards."

Letro dabbed at her wound with one hand and frowned down at the blood. Then she shrugged. "He's right. I won't let it be said that Chirane Letro cheated in a duel."

Izuru felt his shoulders sag. Gin, on the other hand, kept his carefree pose. "So, can we pass?"

"Yeah, you boys are all right," Letro said, giving Gin a hearty slap on the back. "No one will trouble you while you're in this village. Is that understood?"

The mercenaries shuffled their feet. One of them grumbled something that didn't sound too friendly, but no other protests joined hers. Finally, all four nodded.

"That's settled then!" Letro went to pick up her cloak, then turned to look at Izuru. "Have a night in the inn on me, you look like you could use some rest. Come girls, we have work to do elsewhere!"

The mercenaries followed Letro away from the main road. One of them sent a dark glare over her shoulder at Gin, who just waved goodbye.

"T-that was..." Izuru said, fingers wrapped tightly around the pistol. "I don't know how to thank you. This is the second time you've save my life." Long since imprinted manners caught up with him and he bowed low to Gin. "Please accept my most sincere gratitude."

He flinched as Gin chuckled. "My, my, you really are that polite." A hand on Izuru's shoulder pulled him to stand upright again. "No need to bow to me, Izuru. We're friends, right? And you helped guard my back, so you helped me as much as I helped you."

Izuru gaped, his jaw and tongue working to form words, but without success. Gin's face was inches from his own. He could feel the other man's breath on his face. That should not have been exciting. _I barely know him!_

"Do you want to keep that?"

Blinking rapidly, Izuru looked down at the pistol still in his hands. "I-, eh, no, not really."

"Then we should get rid of it, don't you think? Maybe sell it." Gin gave Izuru a pat on the head. "And we should get you a waterskin or a water bottle to carry around. Won't do to be caught off guard again, would it?"

Izuru's face felt like it was burning up. "No..."

"Then we'll see to that, as soon as we've checked in. Follow me!"

There was something almost childlike about Gin. Izuru allowed his mind to wander as he watched Gin make his way towards the inn. _Maybe it's the constant smiling?_ But no, that didn't quite fit. The smile was more taunting than anything else, far from childish. _The way he talks?_ Maybe. The carefree attitude sure wasn't helping him look mature.

Izuru pinched the inside of his wrist. _Why am I even thinking about this?! I should be focusing on finding the Society, not mooning over a complete stranger!...even if he has saved my life. Twice._

This was going to be a long trip.

******

Rangiku yawned. _Why do I always get the night shift?_ She glared at the door that led to the guards' bedroom, from which loud snoring could be heard. _Stupid Shuhei, getting all embarrassed about sharing rooms just because I happen to have boobs. Not my fault I'm gorgeous!_

A knock on the door drew her out of her sulk. She threw a glance at the cell, where Kurosaki and Ishida slept - had been sleeping for the past five hours, in fact - and then got out of her seat.

The identity of the person seeking admittance to the guard room left Rangiku's gaping like a fish on land. "Captain Aizen!" 

Aizen gave her one of his soft, kind smiles. "Ah, sorry to inconvenience you like this, Rangiku. I just thought you'd want to know that Rukia is returning from her mission. I heard the workers at the mission office mention she'd be back after midnight."

"I-, eh, thank you very much, Captain Aizen..." She stepped aside, to give him room to enter.

Aizen shook his head at her, in gentle scolding. "Rangiku, how many times must I remind you to please call me Sosuke?"

She gave a nervous laugh. Everyone knew how personal Aizen liked to get with...well, everyone. And most people got personal right back, as he invited others to do so. It felt odd to call such a calm, nice man 'captain'. Then again, Rangiku had always felt that to call him by his first name would be strange too. Disrespectful, somehow. 

"I blame my useless memory," she said, rapping her knuckles against her head. "You know how it is. Some days I hardly remember the name of my own Captain, much less others'."

A look of concern took over Aizen's otherwise serene expression. Silly as it such a reaction was, it left Rangiku feeling guilty. "Not to worry though! It's not getting worse and I haven't had any nightmares in years. No irrelevant nightmares at least." There was no use lying to Aizen. He always seemed to know when you weren't telling the whole truth and he seemed to have endless patient wheedling the whole story out of you, if you were dumb enough to try and deceive him.

"How are our guests?"

" **Guests?!** "

Rangiku started at the new addition to their conversation. Ishida had marched up to the door to his cell and stood there with his hands wrapped around the bars, eyes burning with rage. "If this is how you treat your guests I'd hate to see what you do with your prisoners."

"I apologize for my poor choice of words." Aizen said, taking a seat by the table that stood opposite the cell. "Rest assured, if Rukia proves your innocence, amends will be made."

Ishida expression remained stoney. "Amends?! We've already lost a full day and it takes almost a week to travel back to Karakura! Lives are lost for every second we spend in here."

Rangiku pressed her lips together until they were a thin, pale line. _We've had good actors worm their way into this village before_. A flash of memory; silver hair and a grin that hadn't gone away, not even at the very end. She dispelled it with a shake of her head.

"I'm sorry, I truly am," Aizen said, radiating sympathy. "If there was anything I could-"

"Ichigo!"

Rangiku stumbled as Lieutenant Kuchiki came rushing past her, knocking her off balance with the door. "Watch it!"

"Ah, sorry Lieutenant Matsumoto!" Kuchiki said, giving her a quick bow. "Permission to see the prisoners?"

"Granted," Aizen said. "And breathe, Rukia. It wouldn't do to have you faint from exhaustion this close to the goal."

"Yes, Captain Aizen."

Rangiku laughed, more to ease the tense atmosphere than because of any actual mirth. "Seems I'm not the only one who forgets."

"What-?"

Aizen shook his head and gave a soft chuckle. "It's not important. It seems they're both awake now. We'll leave you to talk."

"Captain-"

"Come with me, Rangiku. I'll make us some tea."

Hesitation lasted for only a moment. If Lieutenant Kuchiki had turned traitor the sun might as well fall out of the sky. Rangiku gave the other woman a nod and a smile before falling into step behind Aizen.

The last thing she heard before she closed the door behind them, was Kuchiki screaming: "You _idiots_!"

******

"What does bloodbending feel like?"

Izuru nearly dropped the water basin at the question. He managed to get the few drops that spilled over back in the container before they could stain the carpet. "E-excuse me?"

Gin was sitting on the bed at the far end of their rented room, scrubbing his hair dry with a towel. His clothes were all neatly folded on a nearby chair, put there before Izuru had gotten back from the kitchen. "What does it feel like, when you bend? I know from personal experience that being on the receiving end of such a trick is very unpleasant, so I'm curious if it's equally unsettling for the bender."

In the mirror on the dresser Izuru watched his own eyes grow wide in horror. "Who did that to you? Why would anyone-?" He knew the moment he'd said it that it was a stupid question. Gin didn't comment on it. "War times..." Izuru whispered, mostly to himself.

"You don't have to answer," Gin said, throwing the towel onto the room's only chair. "Just know that I don't think you're a bad person for using a gift you were born with. You saved the lives of enemy soldiers and a child. Doesn't exactly scream 'monster'."

Izuru made sure the basin was safely balanced on the desk, before he turned around to face Gin. "Thank you. You're the first person who's ever said that."

"You shown a lot of people your trick?"

Izuru slumped down on his own bed. He ducked his head and quickly told himself it wasn't to avoid looking at Gin's bare chest. "No. But sometimes I have no other choice and those are usually the times I don't have the time to hide."

"Like the time I saw."

"Yes, like that time."

A silence that was somewhere between tense and comfortable fell over the room. Izuru studied his feet. It had been a while since he'd taken a bath. It was almost strange to see any part of himself not covered in grime and dirt.

"It's not unpleasant," he found himself whispering. "Not really. It's more difficult than ordinary waterbending, of course, but it's not too different. All you need to know is where to make the water inside the body go. That's the trickiest part. But...the knowledge of what it must feel like for the ones you're doing it too, that makes it horrible to use. At least to me."

Looking up, he was startled to see that Gin was watching him with rapt fascination. Izuru gulped, then continued: "It's useful, though. Saved my life more than a few times."

"And saved others even more than that, I assume."

Izuru gave a nervous laugh. "I'm not really keeping count."

"You should," Gin said. Izuru couldn't tell if he was joking or not. "Might change people's minds about bloodbenders if you did."

"History would argue against me."

This comment earned him a snort from Gin. "History is written by people. I wouldn't put too much stock in it."

"Right, of course." It was putting Izuru on edge, not knowing if he was being mocked or genuinely encouraged. Gin's tone of voice never changed; always light and playful, no matter who he spoke to or of what.

"Thank you for sharing. I feel honored you'd put such trust in me."

Izuru's breath caught in his throat. Maybe he'd just imagined it, but for a second Gin's voice had lacked its playfulness. Then again, that could be wishful thinking. He knew he was good at that sort of thing. 

"There's no need," he hurried to say before he could over-think the situation. "You did save my life. More than once. A little information is nothing in repayment."

A laugh, which by a less generous listener could have been described as a cackle, left Gin's mouth. "Don't think of it as repayment, Izuru! We're just friends, exchanging experiences and ideas, right?"

"R-right." It was strange how heartwarming those words were. It had been a long time since anyone but Momo and Renji had treated him as anything but another man on the street, or worse, an enemy. Even having just gotten to know the man he felt oddly safe in his presence.

"Polite, polite," Gin sang under his breath, the look of pleased amusement firmly fixed on his face. "Well, it's good one of us is. Might make up for my lack of manners at the next inn."

Izuru stayed quite, unsure of what to add to the conversation. He got up from the bed and began to fold his clothes, thanking the Spirit World that the inn had sleeping clothes for borrowing. It really shouldn't have felt necessary to changed in the bathroom, behind a locked door. Then again, getting undressed in front of strangers was never fun, no matter their gender.

Gin seemed to have no such reservations. Izuru hurried to stare at a very ugly painting of a corn field when the other man got off the bed and headed for the bathrobe that hung on the door, naked as the day he'd been born.

"Since you've told me one of your secrets, I'll tell you one of mine."

The words caught Izuru off guard. Sitting back down on his bed he shook his head, careful not to look either too eager or too uncaring.

"Do you know of the Spirit World?"

"Yes, of course."

Gin turned his head, staring out the open window. "Would you like to go there?"

"I-"

There was a knock on the door. Izuru's eyes immediately fixed on the doorknob, while Gin continued looking out through the window. "Yes?"

"You boys should scamper out of here," a female voice said from the other side. "Soldiers of the Powerful have been spotted coming up the main road and they're asking about a blond waterbender. Figured, since we've only seen one blond person enter here, we'd give you a heads-up."

"Very kind of you." There was a faint thud from somewhere below them. "A little late, perhaps, but still kind."

Izuru sat frozen for a second or two, before he rushed off the bed and over to his clothes.

"There's no time to get changed, I'm afraid," Gin said. "You'll have to carry them."

Heavy footsteps were coming up the stairs. Izuru felt each of them echoed by the loud beating of his own heart. "There's no way out. We'll have to fight." At least there would be water this time around.

"I'm quite tired of fighting. Let's do something else instead," Gin said and walked over to the window, his satchel in hand.

This did nothing to calm Izuru's racing heart. They were four floors up. If they tried to escape that way they'd at the very least break their legs. This fact didn't seem to intimidate Gin in the least, as he grabbed a hold of Izuru's hand and dragged him towards the windowsill.

"What are you _doing_?!"

Gin laughed. "Trust me!" And then he jumped.


	4. Chapter 4

Dawn was approaching. Rangiku had lost track of the hours after she'd bid Aizen good night. She hadn't been able to sleep.

_I really shouldn't be feeling this awful_ , she thought to herself. _It's standard procedure and they didn't get to wait too long. If they are telling the truth, that is._

She looked down at her hands. _I wonder if it's the earth that won't let me sleep. Haven't been out and about in a long while. I should get some practice done. Spar with Shuhei, perhaps. Don't want to lose my edge._

"You mess about with others too much," the pale shadow of a cat said, right next to her ears. A cat; not a cat-monkey or a cat-frog or a cat-raccoon. "If you were smarter, you'd come with me for a while."

"Go away, Haineko," Rangiku muttered. "I have no time for you."

The shadow vanished without a sound. Rangiku glared at the spot where it had been and pushed aside the unpleasant feeling Haineko's appearances always called up. Not unlike a hangover without the fun of first getting drunk.

"Talking to yourself, Matsumoto?"

Rangiku gave Ikkaku a less than impressed look. "My Spirit Guide keeps bugging me," she said. "She'll get tired of me soon. What are you doing sneaking into my apartment?"

Ikkaku pushed her front door wide open and walked inside as if he owned the place. "Ah, Spirit Guides," he said, ignoring her second comment completely. "You should have joined our Squad, you know. We haven't ever bothered with that."

_Maybe I should have_ , she thought to herself, blearily looking out the window. The dim light of sunrise was rapidly giving over to full blown daylight. "It's different for us benders. You can learn a lot about control from the spirit world." _At least that's what they say._

"You can learn plenty enough in the real world," Ikkaku said, as if the mere idea of waltzing off into the Spirit World was ridiculous.

"Probably." Rangiku got up from her seat by what passed for a kitchen table and poured her coffee into the sink. "Now, why are you here?"

Ikkaku didn't leave her hallway (which wasn't much of a hallway, really, more of a doorway that had gotten cocky and spread out a meter into the apartment itself). He leaned back against the wall and crossed his arms over his chest, in what most likely was meant to be a relaxed and dignified pose. It looked relaxed, at least.

"The Captain-Commander has decided the two strangers are telling the truth. Lieutenant Kuchiki apparently defended them wholeheartedly. Long story short, they're looking for volunteers for the reinforcements we're going to send to Karakura. Interested?"

A grin spread over Rangiku's face. She knew she shouldn't get so excited about fighting, and normally she didn't, but after having been cooped up in the Society for a good five weeks, with no one willing to go out drinking with her, it was a wonderful break in monotony. And paperwork. Cursed paperwork.

"I'm in," she said. "Where are we meeting?"

"Main square, in an hour. Don't be late!"

"I won't. And don't-"

Ikkaku slammed the door shut, making the hinges rattle in a way that would have made any carpenter flinch.

"...slam the door," she said to the wall. She thought about running after him and yelling at him, but decided against it. She'd have plenty of time for that later.

******

It shouldn't have been possible, but they landed safe and sound in a tree, a good ten yards from the inn. Gin let go of Izuru's waist and hand, before taking a seat among the branches. He looked as carefree as the moment before the jump, sprawling more than sitting.

All Izuru could do for a long moment was blink. He could hear the dismayed shouts from the soldiers up in their room, no doubt treating the furnishings with less than gentle hands. He flinched as the mirror from the dresser came flying out the window.

"We'd best stay here for a bit," Gin said. "They'll think we left the inn before they arrived. Might look around the inn, but I very much doubt they'll check the trees."

"And if they do?"

"We'll take care of that then." Gin opened his satchel and dug around inside it for a bit, before he pulled something quite large and brown out of it. Izuru immediately felt what it was, even before his brain registered the shape of it. "I got this for you, from the kitchen."

The gratitude Izuru felt over being given the water skin was embarrassing. He hid his blush with a bow, tying the skin to his belt. "Thank you."

"Awww, you're so sweet. And ever so polite." This did nothing to remove the heat from Izuru's face. "Now, why don't you ask the question you've been wanting to ask these past two minutes?"

There was no reason to deny it. "How did we...?"

Gin chuckled. "I know it was fast, but think for a bit and I'm sure you'll figure it out."

Izuru forced himself to recall the fall. His mind had been so fixed on the fact that he'd inevitably break something, and on the soldiers coming up the stairs, that he'd almost missed how they'd changed direction. The vertigo had been there, tugging at his entrails like a stone weight, but it had shifted as their fall had changed direction. One second they'd been heading straight for the ground, the next they were in a tree to their left.

As if they'd been hit by a powerful gale.

"Y-you're an airbender!"

Gin's grin was definitely mocking this time, with a tinge of amusement added in for good measure. "Very observant."

Izuru frantically searched his memory for a way that could make the least bit sense. "But there's only one line of airbenders left and they-"

"There's only one line of airbenders left that the public knows about, yes," Gin interrupted. "I told you history was written by people."

That took some time to process. Izuru heard the footsteps and shouts of the soldiers die away, as he tried to puzzle together this new information with his world view. "...how many are there of you?"

"I don't exactly keep count," Gin answered, followed by a wink. At least Izuru thought it had been a wink. It was hard to tell when the man in question walked around with his eyes half-closed all the time. 

Izuru let that sink in, slowly. He felt so...stupid, probably was the word that fit best; ignorant and naïve.

Gin made a face that for once didn't include a grin, smile or smirk. "Don't feel bad about it, Izuru. Now while we wait, we need something to make time pass. Me telling you my secret would do nicely, don't you think?"

"Secret? T-that...yes, it would." The world around them had gone silent. The night was a dark one, with plenty of stars but no moon. Usually nighttime made Izuru feel safer, more prepared. Without the moon to watch over him, however, it was just more shadows for enemies to hide in.

Gin stretched out on the branches. "My secret is one of strength and how to gain it. Would that interest you?"

Izuru nodded. _If only he knew how much._ But maybe? _He can't read minds. You know that's not possible for anyone._

"What do you know about the Spirit World?"

Old images from textbooks and lectures crawled out of Izuru's memory in a slow moving line. "It's the realm of the spirits that humans may enter after long meditation. Few have ever succeeded in going there and making the journey is not without risk." He paused to clear his throat. Even with eyes half-closed Gin's stare was hard to meet. "We took classes on it back at the Academy in Republic City."

"Ah, the school for promising youth." Gin sat up. "Quite impressive. Who were 'we'?"

Izuru sighed. No use trying to cover for them. They would all meet up in the Society, wouldn't they? Better introduce at least one side of the meeting to the other ahead of time. "I'm sure you saw the two firebenders I was in the company of."

The grin had long since returned to Gin's lips. "Yes, in fact, I did."

_No surprise there._ "We went to the Academy together. And now..."

"You're on the way to the Society together."

"Yes. Well, we were." Momo and Renji's faces were vivid enough at that moment to almost make Izuru think they were there in the tree. _I really need to sleep._

"Then I get to aid a reunion of friends! How wonderful." Gin's tone of voice made it impossible to tell if he was being sarcastic or genuinely glad. It was giving Izuru a headache.

To get out of the mute stalemate that followed, Izuru said: "What were you saying about the Spirit World?"

"Ah, yes." Gin motioned for Izuru to sit opposite him, in the same pose. "I'll teach you how to go there."

Izuru knew his eyes had to be as wide as saucers. At least his bangs covered one of them. "Are you serious?"

Gin's gave a laugh that stood in sharp contrast to the whispered conversation they'd been having. Izuru flinched. "Of course I am! We'll just need to find you a Guide first."

"A Guide?"

Gin nodded. "You need a spirit that can show you the safe paths to travel. The Spirit World isn't all fun and games, which I'm sure you already knew."

Tales of Koh the Face Stealer and assorted other monstrosities called for Izuru's attention. He closed his eyes and forced them away, to the back of his memory. "That sounds reasonable. What would the goal be with our visit?"

"Spirits hold much knowledge," Gin said. "Through speaking with them in their home you may learn much human teachers never could explain to you with words."

The air went still around them. There wasn't as much as a breeze going through the leaves. Izuru suspected this had something to do with Gin, but chose not to comment on it. Instead he opened his eyes and exhaled slowly. He knew that had he been standing, his legs would have shook. "How do we start?" _This is madness. Am I going mad or is it just him?_

"By introducing you to my Guide, Shinso." Gin closed his eyes fully and straightened his back, striking a meditation pose Izuru's professors at the Academy couldn't have bested. "I'm afraid you wouldn't be able to see her if I called her right now. You'll have to get closer to the Spirit World first. Just do as I do."

Izuru closed his eyes without hesitation and focused on his breathing. Meditation was something familiar, something safe. For each second he spent counting his in- and exhales each part of his body relaxed, becoming warmer. Exhaustion and fear became faint buzzing noises at the back of his head, the faint ache in his shoulder fading into nothingness.

He lost track of time quickly. There was no noise to go by, except for his own and Gin's breathing, and eyes closed at night allowed for no visual clues. However, that wasn't important. Izuru had always been good at meditation, at finding his own inner chi and channeling it to his waterbending, but this...

It felt oddly new. He synched his breathing with Gin's without conscious thought. It felt like he was being led somewhere, at the same time as he was sitting stock still. There was only him, Gin, and a warm darkness unlike any previous meditation he'd ever experienced.

"Open your eyes."

Izuru obeyed. Disappointment hit him like a punch in the gut as he was met with the sight of the same branches and leaves he'd closed his eyes on. The only thing different was the light. Dawn had come and gone, leaving the world around them bathing in sunlight. There wasn't a cloud to be seen in the sky.

Confusion, along with self-pity, were about to rear their ugly heads, when he caught sight of something silvery on Gin's shoulder.

With a cry Izuru threw himself backwards. The creature was unlike any animal he'd ever seen; it lacked legs, but had no fur. It's forked tongue darted out, as if tasting the air, and its eyes appeared to have transparent lids.

Seconds later it faded out of sight, like smoke from a dying fire.

"You have talent," Gin said as Izuru struggled to sit back up again. "I didn't expect you to see her on your first try. Don't worry about Shinso, she took no offense."

Elation and worry fought for dominance inside Izuru. He returned to the meditation pose, fighting to not answer Gin's smile with one of his own. It wouldn't do to sit around grinning after having screamed in the face of a spirit. "I-I'm glad. I apologize for my rude greeting of her. I just wasn't prepared for..."

Gin chuckled. "Spirits do enjoy taking on curious shapes. I wager you'll see far stranger things, once you're ready to enter the Spirit World fully. With your talent I'm sure it won't be long."

Izuru preened. He felt horribly silly doing so, but he couldn't help himself. He wanted to impress Gin, in any and all ways possible. Most of all, he didn't want to be a dead weight. _Saved my life twice, keeping my secret and he's teaching me the way to the Spirit World. To say I owe him my life wouldn't be enough._

Gin clapped his hands and at once the tranquil mood around them vanished. A breeze blew through the branches of the tree, stirring the leaves, followed by the sound of chirping birds. "Beautiful day for traveling, isn't it?"

Suddenly, Izuru felt very tired.

******

Not surprisingly Rangiku was the last to arrive at the gathering. Hitsugaya sent her a disapproving glare as he caught sight of her and she merely shrugged in response.

"Thought you'd be here on time," Ikkaku said under his breath, eyes glued on Aizen and Captain Tosen, who both stood at the center of the group.

"I am," Rangiku replied, rolling her eyes. "In fact, I'm exactly on time." She tapped a finger against her watch, showing off the numbers hands. "Now hush, I want to hear what they're saying."

Aizen had taken center stage with the same ease he always did. It was always interesting to see how the usually quite rowdy members of the eleventh Squad quieted down as much as the people from the fourth Squad, so that Aizen could make himself heard without shouting.

"Due to the present threat of the Powerful and the Equalists alike to the Society," Aizen was saying, not looking at anyone in particular, "the Captain-Commander has deemed that only a handful of soldiers can be spared."

Rangiku glanced over to where Kurosaki and Ishida stood, an odd break in the otherwise whole circle of people. They were scowling, Ishida more than Kurosaki. For some reason, Rangiku felt a little taken aback by this. Ishida was the Equalists of the two, yes, but he also seemed to be the more level-headed. Right now, he looked ready to murder someone.

Lieutenant Kuchiki was at his side. Rangiku got the impression that she was the only thing preventing a lot of yelling from Kurosaki. Strange, since she wasn't doing anything other than standing there with her arms crossed, but Rangiku had learned to trust her instincts.

"A handful of us is plenty enough!" Ikkaku shouted, giving Kurosaki and Ishida a thumbs up. "We'll beat the crap out of whoever is messing up your village!"

"Thank you for your words of enthusiasm, Ikkaku," Aizen said, sounding completely sincere. "I will now be taking volunteers. Captain Hitsugaya has sign up as the leader of the rescue mission and he's looking for five people to bring along, other than Ichigo and Uryu here."

"Wait, wait, wait!" Kurosaki shouted the second Hitsugaya took a step forward. "That tiny kid is a _Captain_?"

Rangiku snorted. _Boy is he in for it now!_ Not that Hitsugaya ever attacked anyone for mocking his age, but her Captain knew how to yell someone's ears off. She knew from personal experience.

Hitsugaya pulled himself up to his full height - which was, honestly, less than impressive - and opened his mouth, but was cut short before he could say anything.

"Hey, you!"

Everyone but the Captains flinched at the loud shout. Turning around slowly, Rangiku spotted Captain Zaraki, standing at the far end of the square. He had leaves and small branches stuck in his hair and he looked somewhat out of breath, as if he'd been running for the better part of the morning. His eye was locked onto Kurosaki. 

"You're pretty strong, for a kid. Wouldn't mind a rematch, soon."

Kurosaki had gone several shades paler. "How soon?" he asked. Rangiku had to give him points for not shaking.

The grin on Captain Zaraki's face rivaled that of any shark-seal in the known seas. "Now works." He unsheathed his sword. On his shoulder, Lieutenant Kusajishi gave a loud squeal of delight.

Without blinking Hitsugaya summoned up a gigantic water pillar from the nearby well. It reshaped itself into a dragon of moving ice and wrapped itself around Captain Zaraki before anyone had the chance to move. "Calm down, Zaraki. Wasn't there an emergency you were supposed to take care of, in the south sector?"

The ice dragon broke with a loud crack, raining to the ground in thousands of water drops. Captain Zaraki shrugged a block of ice off his left shoulder, his expression the closest to shamefaced as Rangiku ever had seen it get. "Might have heard something about that, yes."

"Kenken, here's the letter!" Lieutenant Kusajishi said, sitting on the ground several meters to the left of Captain Zaraki. Rangiku hadn't seen her dodge Hitsugaya's attack. Then again, that wasn't anything new. Kusajishi was waving a roll of paper in the air, a goofy smile on her face.

"Hmph, fine," Captain Zaraki said, shaking the last of the ice off his jacket. "We'll go check it out. Guess our rematch will have to wait, boy." He waited for Kusajishi to jump back up on his shoulder before he took off running; probably in the wrong direction.

"And _that's_ why he's a Captain," Rangiku said to Kurosaki, not a little smugly.

Kurosaki and Ishida both looked poleaxed. "…oh."

Completely unfazed, Aizen broke the silence as if nothing had happened. "So, do we have any volunteers?"

******

"I did promise we'd get to sleep in a bed, didn't I?"

Izuru squirmed. "Gin, this really isn't necessary. I can sleep on the couch."

A chuckle. "None of that, now. Try to get some sleep."

Awkward didn't even begin to describe this situation. Izuru couldn't comprehend how they'd gotten the room in the first place - this was someone's home after all, not an inn or a hotel - which made wrapping his mind around the fact that he was sharing a bed with Gin more difficult.

He still had the sleeping clothes he'd borrowed from the inn, so Izuru had opted for sleeping wearing them. Gin, however, hadn't bothered with...well, anything.

_Don't think about it, don't think about it, don't think about it,_ ran through Izuru's mind like a mantra. A soft huff of breath alerted him to the fact that Gin had relaxed further into the bed. Within seconds his breathing was even and slow. For each breath he exhaled, a soft gust of air brushed against Izuru's left ear and neck. 

Izuru lay stiff as a board, eyes fixed on the ceiling. His fingers curled around his half of the blanket until they ached. It had been months since he'd shared sleeping place with someone else; longer yet since the other person had been naked.

The ceiling was quite dirty, with damp spots. It provided no form of distraction. _Maybe I should count sheep-goats?_ Another of Gin's breaths knocked that idea aside like a leaf on the wind. _Or maybe I should just hit my head against the wall until I pass out._

The light from the windows played on the wall to the right of the bed. It couldn't be more than early evening, but after the walk they'd undertaken it felt like far past midnight. There were no blinds or shutters, which left the room illuminated by the lanterns that dangled from the rain gutter outside. The harsh wind that howled outside had set the lanterns swinging, painting random patterns of shadows and light on the wall.

_It almost looks like home. With a bit of imagination you could think it were the lights of the satos driving down the street outside._ Izuru's eyelids were growing heavier. He let himself feel his aching legs and feet, as well as let his hands, relax. Gin's breathing and warmth still registered with him, though they were slowly melting into the background of the room.

Before he knew it, he was dreaming.

"Bloodbender, eh?" the woman with the gray hair said. She was circling him. They were in a library or a lecture hall. The background kept shifting, bookshelves turning into walls and tables into benches. "Now, what should we do about that?"

Izuru knew this dream well; it was as familiar as the sight of his own face in the mirror. He knew there was no point in fighting it.

"I think we could use him. Don't you?"

The other woman never had a face. She was dressed all in red, with the symbol of the Powerful painted on her sleeves in bright gold. She was seated somewhere far to the left of him, but the distance kept changing from miles to meters.

"I don't think so, dear," the gray-haired woman said, as if Izuru had spoken. "We can't let someone like you run around unsupervised. Who knows what trouble you could get into..."

Despite that he'd known it had been coming, the words made him flinch.

"You wouldn't want your friends to know, would you?" the faceless woman asked. "Your parents knew, didn't they? Which one did you inherit it from?"

He shook his head. He always shook his head. No matter how awake he felt, he never managed to go against the 'script', so to speak.

The faceless woman got up out of her chair. The chair disappeared into the shadows and in the next second the faceless woman had crossed the room, the hem of her skirt brushing against his shoulder.

"Then it's settled," the gray-haired woman said. "You'll start private lessons with Ms. Neles next week. Don't be late."

"Wakey, wakey!"

...that voice didn't belong. Everything was rocking from side to side. The library-lecture hall was tumbling over, books and chairs falling everywhere. The women were frozen, the face he could see blank as a mask.

Blinking, Izuru brought a hand up to rub at his eyes. There was a hand on his shoulder, shaking him gently. Bleary at first, Gin's smiling face came into view above him, eclipsing the damp spots on the ceiling. The room was much lighter now, daylight shining in through the windows.

"You're blushing again," Gin said, before letting go of his shoulder and sitting back on his haunches.

Izuru pulled the blanket up to his nose and screwed his eyes tightly shut. His heart was already beating like mad after that dream and Gin hadn't put on a shirt yet. Or any clothes for that fact. The conflict of panic and _other_ panic pushed the last of his sleepiness aside with full force.

"Better get going, Izuru!" Gin said, bouncing off the bed like a seven year old child. "Mr. Haren has made breakfast. Fried eggs and freshly baked bread awaits!"

"Go ahead," Izuru said, muffled by the blanket. "I'll be right behind you."

"If you say so." Opening one eye, Izuru watched as Gin grabbed his clothes and opened the door to the hallway. "Don't take too long or everything will get cold!" With that, Gin left the room, leaving the door ajar.

Izuru counted to ten before he dared get out of bed. _Wish I had time for a shower_ , he thought as the fine layer of cold sweat on his skin made itself known in the cool air of the room. His borrowed night clothes clung to him in an most unflattering way. _The soldiers can't be far away though._

He got dressed as quickly as he could, then took a turn about the room to check if he'd forgotten something. He tied the water skin to his belt, its weight a calming influence. His heartbeat slowed to a normal rate as he paced. Nothing forgotten. Not that he had many belongings to forget. Satisfied, he made his way downstairs.

"Ah, you're up!" Mr. Haren greeted Izuru from the head of the kitchen table. "Did you sleep well?"

"Yes, like a rock," Izuru said, daring to laugh a little. 

"Good," Mr. Haren said. "Then again, you looked so tired when you got here that I was surprised you didn't fall asleep on the porch. I guess a lumpy couch wasn't too much of a challenge for you."

How Mr. Haren failed to notice the sly smile Gin gave Izuru at that, the world would never know.

There was one free seat left, the one next to Gin. Izuru tried to not glance at Gin's clothes – situation on his body as if he hadn't walked out of their borrowed room stark naked only a few minuts ago - or his expression - still a wide grin. Instead he studied what had been laid out for breakfast. The bread was indeed freshly baked and accompanied by more food than Izuru had seen in months. Mr. Haren had even put bowls and plates with food on the _chairs_ on the other side of the table.

"It must have been a good harvest," Izuru said, trying to start a conversation before Gin could.

Mr. Haren's eyes briefly lost their cheerful spark. "Ah, not really. My girls are out fighting, you see. They were drafted last month. I get sent rations for three, but since their mother and brother... Well, I always have plenty to spare."

Izuru recalled the closed doors that had lined the hallway upstairs; rooms they'd been asked not to try and enter. "I'm sorry to hear that."

"They're good girls, both of them," Mr. Haren said. "Strong and clever. I'm sure they'll make it back in one piece and they'll help rid the world of the Powerful. Things will be well, as long as you have hope." He shrugged, his wistful expression morphing back into his previous happy one. "But that's not talk before travel! Wouldn't want to bring you bad luck. Dig in, dig in! You're just skin and bones, the both of you."

Gin remained unusually quite all through the meal. Then again, Izuru had only known him for two days; who was he to say what was and wasn't usual for Gin? The food provided a delicious distraction from such thoughts and he managed to avoid asking anymore painful question, which had the conversation flowing smoothly and pleasantly.

When they were ready to leave, Mr. Haren followed them out onto the porch.

"Thank you for letting us stay the night," Izuru said, bowing. Gin had already started walking, waving goodbye over his shoulder. "If there is anything we can do..."

"Nonsense, it was good to have some company," Mr. Haren said. "You boys be careful! I heard on the radio that the Powerful are advancing their armies in this direction. Don't want you to get in trouble with them. And watch out for others benders too! They're not to be trusted, no matter what they say, you hear me?"

Izuru felt his smile freeze on his face. He glanced over at Gin, who'd continued to cheerfully wave goodbye. "Thank you for the advice, Mr. Haren! May your daughters return to your home soon!"

Mr. Haren went back inside and Izuru fell into step behind Gin. For a long moment, the only sound that could be heard was the chirping of birds.

"Gin, did you..." Izuru trailed off, one hand on the water skin.

"Prejudice is tricky," Gin said. "Not something you should mess around with if you have the chance to avoid it. He's a nice old man. Best not to upset him."

"Of course."

Gin's smile turned almost sympathetic. "We'll make good time today, starting out this early. Is there a particular date by which you have to be in the Society?"

Izuru gave Gin a startled look, all thoughts of Mr. Haren swept away. "Eh, no, not really."

"Good," Gin said. "Then we'll make an early break tonight and give the Spirit World another try. I suspect you'll get to follow Shinso and I the entire way this time."

Izuru's visible eye widened. "Are you sure?"

"Pretty sure."

Izuru stopped in his tracks, letting the realization wash over him. Tonight, he could be standing in the Spirit World. He didn't know if he felt elated or terrified.

He decided to postpone the panic until the right moment.

******

If Yumichika didn't stop complaining about the sleeping bags soon, Rangiku was sure she'd have to strangle him. She was just about to tear his head off - verbally - when Hitsugaya beat her to it.

"Right, that's enough!" he said. "If I hear one more word out of you, you're sleeping on the ground!"

The stare-down they ended up locked in had the rest of the camp trying to stifle giggles for the next four minutes. Rangiku, Shuhei and Ikkaku huddled up around the campfire and cracked open a couple of bottles of water. Sadly, there was to be no drinking on duty. At least, no drinking anything stronger than milk. 

"So, should we take bets on who turns who to stone first?" Ikkaku whispered to the other two campfire tenders, earning himself a slap upside the head from Yumichika.

"We're not deaf," Hitsugaya said. "But you three seem to be. Can't you hear that?"

Spine stiff as a board, Rangiku clamped her mouth shut. The camp was empty of people other than the five of them and yet... There was something wrong about the whole picture, something lacking. How could she have let her guard down that much? 

"The birds aren't singing," she whispered, her eyes narrowing. "And I'm pretty sure that was a branch breaking."

Ikkaku snorted. "Whoever is stupid enough to try and sneak up on us will learn their lesson!" he said. He kicked aside his sleeping bag, revealing a spear. Well, mostly a spear. Rangiku had seen it used in other ways more than once; quite a neat invention.

Hitsugaya had uncorked the bottle of water he always carried. "Spread out and attack on my order."

"We're not enemies!"

They all blinked in unison. Even Hitsugaya. As if summoned by their words, the head of a young woman had popped up out of the bushes in front of them. "Please don't attack. We have no quarrel with you."

"Yeah, what kind of attitude is that?" a second voice said, from somewhere behind the girl, the owner of the voice obscured from view by leaves and branches. "You hear someone walking through the woods so you decide to jump on them? Paranoid much?"

Rangiku breathed a sigh of relief. A sidelong glare from Hitsugaya reminded her that it still could be a trap, but it felt better to have some opponents out in the open. She glanced up at the trees, in case there were people preparing an ambush up there, before taking a step closer to the girl. Yumichika had already rushed off, most likely checking the perimeter. If there were hidden people in the trees, they wouldn't stay hidden much longer.

"Who are you?"

The girl stepped out of the bushes - and how she'd managed to stay hidden in clothes that bright red was a mystery Rangiku wasn't going to spend too much time pondering - followed by a man whose clothes matched hers, and whose hair matched the clothes. "I'm Momo Hinamori. This idiot here is Renji Abarai, who's gotten us lost for the fifth time today!"

"Hey!" The man had tattoos on his forehead that wrinkled quite oddly when he frowned.

Hinamori rolled her eyes. "I'm only telling the truth."

"To a group of strangers!" Abarai said, gesticulating wildly. "What point was there in telling them that?"

"Better I tell them than hit you, right?"

Ikkaku sat bolt upright and his eyes widened, as if he'd just come to some big realization. "Wait a minute, I know you!" he said, pointing at Abari.

The man in question mimicked Ikkaku's look of shock perfectly. "Ikkaku Madarame!"

"Renji, you old piece of-"

"There are children present," Rangiku cut in, earning herself a dark glare from Hitsugaya.

Hinamori's eyes darted from Abari to Ikkaku for a few seconds, before she said: "You're from the Society!"

"Told you we weren't lost!" 

"Actually," Rangiku said, unable to help herself, "you're quite far from the Society. We're out on a mission. Our village is a three day walk north of here."

Himamori shook her head. "We shouldn't have put our trust in your memory. Idiot."

Abari grumbled something that sounded far from nice under his breath. Then he shrugged. "It's not like we would have stayed there long, anyways."

This seemed to catch Hitsugaya's attention. Rangiku had been keeping track of him out of the corner of her eye, in case he ordered an attack nonetheless, and had been quite amused to see him simply staring at Hinamori. _Not made of ice after all, huh?_

"What do you mean by that?" Hitsugaya asked, crossing his arms over his chest in a way that left the flask of water on his belt very visible.

Hinamori stepped on Abarai's foot before he could say whatever he'd opened his mouth to voice. As he jumped around swearing, she said: 

"We got separated from a friend of ours, Izuru Kira, at the last village we stopped by. They were being attacked by the Powerful, so we decided to help them out a bit. Our strategy wasn't perfect, however, and Izuru ended up in an ambush while we were off helping the adults of the village into a hidden shelter."

A look of pain darted across Hinamori's face, but changed into determination before anyone could comment on it. "From what the children he'd been guarding told us, Izuru jumped into the nearby river after he'd defeated the enemy soldiers. We've been following it ever since, looking for him."

"Which is why we got lost," Abarai muttered. "Not my fault when we didn't stick to the path I knew."

"So you're saying we should just have given up on Izuru and followed your route?"

"Of course not!"

The ensuing silence was broken by a loud: "Renji, you walking fashion disaster! What are you doing out in the middle of the woods?"

Abarai jumped ten feet into the air - or, well, at least he tried to - as Yumichika appeared behind him and clapped him on the shoulder, seemingly out of nowhere. "Shit, Ayasegawa, don't do that! You looking to give me a heart attack?"

Yumichika rolled his eyes. "Really now, Renji, there's no need to be so formal. What have you been doing with yourself these past, oh, ten years?"

"Ayasegawa, quit playing around," Hitsugaya said. "But the question is a good one. How do you know each other and why are you seeking the Society now?"

As one, both Abarai and Hinamori sagged, like a heavy weight had been put on their shoulders. "That's a long story."

Rangiku observed the conversation from her place by the campfire. She'd taken her seat again; as long as she had her feet on the ground, she'd have a way to defend herself. Didn't look to be necessary though. If Yumichika had given up on the recon that meant there was no enemies nearby. He could whine with the best of them about the weather and the walking, but when it came down to the important things he took his responsibilities seriously.

_Much like me,_ she thought, not without amusement. _At least they haven't started handing Yumichika paperwork._

"I used to be in the eleventh Squad," Abarai said, tugging Rangiku back to the present. "Grew up on the streets of Republic City, then one day this rich guy comes and offers to adopt one of my friends, so I kinda tagged along for the ride. To make sure the guy wasn't about to, I don't know, do something creepy to her. These two can back me up on that."

Ikkaku nodded. "Yeah, he's an old pal of Lieutenant Kuchiki. Hard to imagine, huh?"

Abarai scowled. "Thanks for the back-up."

Rangiku frowned. _Kuchiki again? This is starting to sound like too much of a coincidence._ She dug her toes into the dirt, preparing herself.

"Anyways, a while back I got word that some old friends back 'home' were in trouble, so I left. Then, well..." Abarai shrugged. "I got scouted by one of those professors at the Academy. Didn't have much to offer the Society in terms of fighting skills back then, so I thought I'd join up and get better."

"That's how we met," Hinamori said. "The two of us and Izuru. We were in the same class."

"And now you've just decided to leave you cozy city life to join back up with the Squads?" Yumichika asked, raising one elegant eyebrow. 

Hinamori shook her head. "Not quite. You've heard what's happening over in Republic City, haven't you?"

All eyes turned to Hitsugaya, who cleared his throat. "Our intelligence sources have relayed some quite worrying reports regarding the Powerful in the area," he said.

"You mean like the fact that they _are_ the area," Abarai deadpanned. "They've been for years, really. It's just been made more official, which is the reason we decided to get out of there. Rather fight on the right side."

"None of us have any family left in Republic City, so you needn't worry about us being compromised," Hinamori said. "We've seen how the Powerful work and don't wish to have anything to do with them."

"But if the Powerful have been in charge for years," Ikkaku said, "what exactly made you wait this long to get your asses out of there? Not that I-, eh, uhm..." With some amusement, Rangiku noted that his cheeks took on a red tint a second after he'd said that; quite an overreaction to realizing you'd just mentioned a woman's butt. _Some of our Society boys need to get out a bit more._

"The Academy contains the best and brightest of benders from all over the world," Hinamori said, uncaring of Ikkaku's stuttering. "Do you think the Powerful would just let us come and go as we please? The guards took some time to outwit and it took even longer to get strong enough to risk breaking out."

Abarai crossed his arms over his chest and nodded, as if to back her up. "You could say that again! Just telling you about the close calls would take hours."

Yumichika elbowed his way into the middle of the group, without actually looking like that was what he'd done. "Well, we were about to make dinner. I think we have time to listen to your adventures." 

"Right." Abarai took a seat, his eyes darting around the camp like two nervous squirrel-badgers. "Where's the others?"

"Others?" Hitsugaya asked. Rangiku could see his left hand lower to settle on the water bottle and she braced herself for an order to attack.

Abarai snorted. "I count five of you, but eight sleeping bags. Don't tell me you were waiting for us."

"Don't be silly," Yumichika said. "There are eight of us. Well, two guests and then the six of us from the Society, to be exact. They, and one of our soldiers, are scouting ahead, at the moment."

This earned him a glare from Hitsugaya, which he of course ignored. Rangiku fought the urge to roll her eyes.

"Looking for enemies?" Hinamori asked. Rangiku got the impression that this prospect gave her mixed feelings and none of them good. Hinamori's hands were as restless as Hitsugaya's, seeking out something hidden in her wide sleeves. Her eyes were dark and distant, as if she was thinking back on a similar situation that hadn't ended too well.

"We're on a rescue mission of our own," Ikkaku said, also ignoring Hitsugaya's glares. _Well, he's not disobeying any direct orders,_ Rangiku thought to herself. This time, she did roll her eyes. "There's a village being attacked, a few days away from here. Some villagers came to us for help and now we're off to do exactly that!"

"The two villagers went ahead of us," Hitsugaya said, sitting down by the campfire in a manner that only could be described as grumpy. "Apparently this path is lined with traps further along. They'll temporarily disable them so that we may pass." 

Yumichika looked up from the can of soup he'd opened and looked over his shoulder. "And speaking of the Face Stealer..."

Kurosaki and Ishida looked less than pleased to find strangers in the camp. Ishida opened his mouth to say something, but got an elbow in the ribs from Kurosaki, interrupting him. Behind them Rangiku spotted a very slack-jawed Lieutenant Kuchiki.

_She'll catch flies like that._ Rangiku couldn't help but chuckled at the thought. "Looks like we have some introductions to make," she said to no one in particular. "Or re-introductions?"

Renji looked like he didn't know what to do with himself. Lieutenant Kuchiki didn't look much better.

"...so," Kurosaki said. "Who's the girl and the guy with the freaky tattoos?"

"Freaky?!"

Hinamori gave Abarai a stern look and quiet down. She then gave the newcomers a polite bow. "It's nice to meet you, especially you Rukia Kuchiki. Renji's told me a lot about you!"

"Has he?" Lieutenant Kuchiki asked, sounding stunned and distant.

"Yes, he even keeps a pict-"

Abarai clamped a hand over Hinarmori's mouth. To Rangiku's amusement this earned him a dark glare from Captain Histugaya, which Abarai steadfastly ignored. 

"Well, this really means we can trust you guys, I guess!" he said in far too loud a voice to be casual. "I think we'll join you in going to this village! Or what do you say, Momo?"

Hinamori gave a soft 'humph' as Abarai let go of her, but made no move to retaliate. "I would seem the wisest course."

"I thought you were looking for your friend?" Ikkaku said, his eyes narrowing. "Izu-whatever."

"Izuru Kira," Hinamori said. "And we are. But as I think Renji meant to say, we have a much larger chance of finding him while traveling with you. We don't know where any of the villages are located and we can't just go calling his name in the woods hoping to find him. Better to ask people. Also..."

"What?"

A look that definitely was worry fell across Hinamori's face. "We've asked for Izuru in every village near the river and some people in one of them said a waterbender that looked like him had passed through, in the company of a strange man. They were hunted by soldiers."

Rangiku fought the urge to shake her head. If that girl wasn't a spy, the spying business had lost a real talent. The girl's sad expression made even her want to hug the poor thing and, well, she wasn't one to trust easily.

"It's settled then," Captain Histugaya said, to everyone's surprise. "Now everyone who isn't on guard should go to sleep. We'll have to travel fast tomorrow."


	5. Chapter 5

"Even breaths."

Izuru was unsure of who the voice belonged to. It could have been his own for all he knew. He felt like he was floating, while stuck on solid ground. _Is this how it feels to be an earthbender?_

"You can open your eyes now." That voice was definitely Gin's. It was becoming familiar very quickly. For one surreal moment, Izuru thought it might one day be more familiar to him than his own.

What a bizarre thought.

Taking a deep breath Izuru opened his eyes, preparing himself for the view of the campsite and Gin's strange Guide. Instead, he found himself in a swamp.

It was like nothing he'd ever seen before. There were movements in the shadows, every flicker a new creature he'd never seen in the real world; fantastic combinations of fur, claws, scales and tails.

Izuru gasped. _Am I dreaming? It can't have gone this quickly, I'm sure it can't!_

"But it can." A new voice, female. Or female-ish. There was an underlying hiss to it that made it inhuman and hair-raising to listen to.

Tearing his eyes away from the trees, partly hidden by mist as they were, Izuru turned to stare at the owner of the voice. What he found was Gin, sitting on a fallen log, with the strange animal from the night before wrapped around his shoulders.

"E-excuse me?" Izuru said, daring to take a step closer to them.

The strange animal slithered its way down Gin's arm, who lifted it so it was eye to eye with Izuru. "You're quite talented, Izuru Kira. Welcome to the Spirit World."

Izuru could hear a river; it took him a moment to realize it was the sound of his own blood, rushing in his ears. Once more he was caught between elation and terror. He blinked and turned to look at the trees again, trying to catch a clear sight of the creatures darting between the shadows.

"Congrats, Izuru!" Gin's voice, somewhere in the background.

"What do I...?" Izuru turned around. Gin was nowhere to be seen; neither was Shinso. "Oh." Izuru suddenly felt very small, dwarfed by the swamp around him. He tried very hard not to think about how much like claws the tree branches looked.

"You will see him again, once you return to your own realm."

Jumping, Izuru whirled around to locate the source of the voice. There was a man sitting in the middle of the swamp. At first glance he could have been any man on the street, his dark skin and hair making him seem a native to the North or South Pole. At a closer look, however, you noted the eerie aura, the look of pure age in his eyes.

Izuru hurried to bow, to avoid staring at the ball and chains the man - spirit - wore, or the stone tablet on his back. "Are you my Guide?"

"I am." The spirit stood, hefting the iron ball up onto one of his shoulders. "You may address me as Wabisuke."

Unsure of what else to do, Izuru bowed deeper. "It is a great honor to meet you, Wabisuke. I am Izuru Kira."

"None of that scraping and bowing," Wabisuke said. "And I know your name. Shinso has spoke of you to me. It seems her pupil has given you his favor. That's unique. If you impress me, I might decide to keep guiding you. I wish for you to demonstrate your skills."

Bending didn't work in the Spirit World, that was common knowledge. "I would if I could." Izuru held up his hands, demonstrating the lack of movement in the waters around them. It was unsettling to have so much water around without being able to sense it.

"The technique is still there, isn't it?" Wabisuke asked. "You don't forget how to move your arms, just because you can't feel the movement of the water."

"Of course not!" Izuru said, before biting his tongue.

Heavy steps brought Wabisuke closer to Izuru, halting when they were mere inches apart. Izuru did his best not to cower. He'd faced down waves of enemy soldiers before, he could do this without flinching. At least, he hoped he could convince himself of that long enough to survive this. 

"Then you'll be fine." Wabisuke begun circling him, bringing unpleasant memories to the surface. "We shall have a duel. If you avoid being mortally wounded until the light changes, I will accept you as my student."

"W-what light?" Izuru asked, eyes darting to the sky. The mist was making it difficult to see beyond the nearest tree tops and impossible to tell if it was night or day. Maybe it was neither.

Wabisuke didn't smile, but there was a glint in his eyes that reminded Izuru of Gin. "Enough chatter. Fight me!"

There was no time to pray for his own survival. Acting on pure instinct Izuru brought his hands up in time to block a punch to his face. Hopefully, instinct would be enough.

******

"How are you holding up?"

Kurosaki started, but only for the briefest of seconds. Rangiku had to applaud him on his composure. _If he's telling the truth and he's got a dad and two sisters out there..._ Yeah, she wouldn't have been holding up as well. At least, she wouldn't have been too happy about standing in one place too long.

_Guess I'm more like Ishida than I'd like to admit._ She glanced over at the boy in question. He wasn't being too obvious about it, which also was sort of impressive, but anyone who looked closely enough could tell he wanted to tear the world apart out of sheer frustration.

"I'm fine," Kurosaki said, sounding anything but. "I'll be even better once we get to Karakura."

"We'll fix this," Rangiku found herself saying. "Ikkaku isn't just bragging, you know. We're good. The best, probably. And if the Powerful get desperate enough to take hostages we know how to deal with that too, without innocents getting hurt." Well, that might have been a bit over the top, but it was the best she could do at the moment.

Kurosaki forced something that looked like a smile, in low enough light. "Thanks. I'm sure you're good at your job, but..."

"But if we don't get there in time, there won't be much point to this rescue mission, right?"

There was a hint of shame on his face as he nodded. "Yeah, something like that."

Rangiku sighed. "Listen, you got sent to us because there was hope left help would make it in time. And you only got delayed by one day. Whoever thought up this plan must have taken into account the risk of you getting lost and wasting time that way."

She took a step closer, leaning against the tree next to the one Kurosaki had huddled up against. Not that she thought he'd appreciate it if she described his pose as 'huddling'. "You two are good fighters. I doubt they'd send you away to get help if that was pointless, when they needed all the fighters they had."

"It was old man Urahara and my dad who made the call," Kurosaki said with a huff of breath that might have been a chuckle. "You're probably right. It's just..."

"You're stuck here and your little sisters are caught in the middle of a battle?"

Kurosaki looked up from studying the ground. "You're quite good at the whole 'fill in the sentence'-thing, aren't you?"

Rangiku shrugged. "It's a gift."

A snort. "I bet it is." His eyes turned to the sky. The clouds overhead were splitting up, giving way to stars and darkness. "You're right, though. I just can't _think_ right now, you know? Karin and Yuzu, they're just little kids. They shouldn't have to go through this. Yuzu isn't even a bender."

"We'll get there in time," Rangiku said. "And if your sisters are anything like you, I'm sure they'll be fine, bending or no bending. Spirits, Ikkaku and Yumichika have no bending and they'll kick your ass to the next calender if you piss them off."

"I guess."

Rangiku pushed a stray lock of hair back over her shoulder, then turned to face Kurosaki, resting her shoulder against the tree. "They're not alone. They have your dad and the rest of the village backing them up, protecting them. From what you told me about Karakura, I think we should be more worried about the Powerful." 

Kurosaki muttered something, too low for her to make out. She decided to ignore it.

"We'll be there before you know. What we have to do is get there in one piece, so we can aid them with all the power we've got. You even got some extra backup for the price of one." She gave the sleeping forms of Abarai and Hinamori an pointed look. "So stop beating yourself up about this. You're not being useless. You just have to be patient."

A heavy sigh left Kurosaki's lungs. It didn't sound heavy or depressed though. In fact, it sounded like a sigh of relief. A moment of silence passed, then: "You're right. Thanks for...well, thanks."

"No problem, Kurosaki," she said and smiled. The air around them felt lighter, somehow. 

He returned her smile with a real one of his own. "Just call me Ichigo."

******

Izuru yelped and ducked behind a fallen log. The swamp around him shifting, as if the mist was turning into water. He could still breathe, though. Maybe it was the head wound talking. He flinched as his cracked ribs belatedly protested his mad dash to safety.

"Impressive!" Wabisuke's voice echoed from the other side of the place that had become their fighting arena. "You've lasted much longer than anyone who's dueled me before. I'm ready to swear loyalty to you, _if_ you manage to disarm me."

_He could be lying._ Izuru leaned back against the log, one arm curled around his waist to support his ribs. Wabisuke was standing tall - too far away to make out his expression, but he was no doubt smiling. _I'd never thought I'd learn to be so unsettled by smiling people._

It had to be a trick. Wabisuke had been throwing him around like a feather. There were a lot of large indentations in the ground, left by the ball and chain. There was no way Izuru's running about had impressed him. Some of the blows Izuru had struck had managed to land, true, but Wabisuke hadn't even flinched.

_I can't sit here all night_. Izuru took a deep breath. _If I'm going to die, I won't be hiding like a coward when I do._

Another deep breath. Getting to his feet hurt bad enough to make him bite through his lower lip. Wordlessly, he turned around and took aim. He'd only get one shot.

"New strategy I see," Wabisuke said. He broadened his stance and rested the chain on his shoulders, the iron ball coming to rest over his right shoulder blade. "I hope it will serve you well."

"So do I."

A second of stillness. Another.

Izuru set off at a dead run, straight for Wabisuke, who remained unmoving. _Not unexpectedly_. Just as Wabisuke raised his hand to strike, Izuru ducked under his arm and punched. Quickly darting right, Izuru found himself facing Wabisuke's back.

It didn't take any thought, he just hit.

Wabisuke didn't fall, he didn't as much as bend his knee. The chain, however, dropped out of his grasp. As it was tethered to his belt, it looked like the parody of a tail. "Nerve pinch. Clever."

Izuru stood frozen in shock. _I did it!_ The moment of triumph was rewarded with an elbow to his chin.

"We will meet again, Izuru Kira," he heard, once the ringing in his ears had stopped. "The next time, as teacher and student. I bid you good luck on your quest."

The swamp was spinning, or maybe it was just him. The mist was getting thicker. At least the pain was lessening; not disappearing, but fading from nauseating to manageable. The darkness was almost welcoming.

"Easy now."

Water. Sweet, wonderful water right within his reach. Izuru opened his eyes to find its source and found himself lying on his back, staring up at leaves and branches, with small patches of sky in-between. Most of it was obscured by the upper body of Gin Ichimaru.

"Great work, Izuru!" Gin said. He had a cup of water pressed to Izuru's lips. "Wabisuke is not easily convinced, if what I've heard from Shinso is to be believed. How are you feeling?"

Izuru took a few small gulps of water, then groaned. "Like I've been beaten by an army of the Powerful and the Equalists combined."

"I'm going to translate that as numb and in pain." Gin sat up straight. "Don't worry, you're not actually wounded. That's the beauty of the Spirit World."

Izuru tried to catch sight of the sun. It didn't seemed to have moved too much since he'd last seen it. "How long was I there; in the Spirit World?"

"Three days at least."

" _Three days?!_ " He tried to sit bolt upright, but his ribs and stomach both protested. "How is that even possible?"

"As I said, the beauty of the Spirit World." Gin put the bowl down. They seemed to have gained a collection of bags and bowls, hung up and put on the branches.

"Have you...?"

"You'd better rest," Gin said. "We've got a long walk ahead of us tomorrow."

Izuru tried to form words, but his tongue and lips were refusing to cooperate. He was dead tired, and despite all the pain and confusion, very pleased with himself.

******

"This is it?"

Ichigo glared at Yumichika. "We said village, right? Were you expecting Republic City?"

Yumichika glared right back. "It's quiet. If you were under attack, there should be more sounds of battle. _Any_ sounds of battle."

"There could be a lull," Hitsugaya said, stepping further out on the branch he was occupying. "We'll advance in silence. Kurosaki, Ishida, you lead the way to your people's shelter. Matsumoto, Hisagi, you watch everyone's backs. Be prepared for an ambush."

Rangiku fell into step behind the rest of the group, Shuhei on her left. The village they were approaching wasn't anything impressive. There couldn't be more than a few hundred inhabitants; big for a village in this area, perhaps, but nothing compared to the Society. The forest grew up to the very edge of town, leaving them good cover to approach through, as long as they kept to the tree tops.

Ichigo had his jaw clenched hard enough to hurt again, by the looks of him. Ishida had ducked his head, so his expression was harder to read. Both of them were very quiet as they made their way from the trees onto the rooftops.

There were signs of struggle. Many of the buildings were scorched or missing pieces of their walls. Debris was scattered about the main street - the only street despite a few alleys - the remains of stalls and furniture smashed by running feet and weapons.

_I hope the children made it out,_ she thought as they passed the burnt down remains of the local school. The sign was barely readable anymore, little more than ashes. _Looks like it happened a while ago. A day or two at least. Bloodstains must have dried up by now or everyone just got very lucky._

"We're almost at the- woah!"

A gust of very strong wind rushed up and struck Ichigo and Ishida back from the edge of the roof. They stumbled back, but didn't fall. Rangiku cursed; she'd need her feet on the ground for this. There was no metal on the house they were standing on, only wood.

There was a man on the roof of the house in front of them. He hadn't been there the moment before, she was sure of it.

"Don't!"

The man didn't move. At closer inspection, he looked to be in his thirties, with unkempt blond hair, wearing a robe and an odd hat. In short, not exactly the picture of a warrior. _Then again, that's usually the best way to take people by surprise. I should know._

The tension was broken by the man shouting: "Welcome back!" in a tone of voice it was impossible to feel threatened by or take seriously. "You were quicker than we thought you'd be. I apologize for the misunderstanding."

"Who are you?" Hitsugaya had made his way to the edge of the roof, turning so that the stranger would be able to see the bottle of water hanging from his belt.

"That's just old man Urahara," Ichigo said, stance relaxed. "You can trust him. A bit."

"Old man?" Rangiku asked, one eye twitching. He couldn't be more than five years her elder.

"Eh, I-"

"What do you mean, a bit?" Urahara had walked up to the edge of his roof. "I'll have you know I've been guarding the village's boarder day and night! You lot could have hurried back a little quicker, you know."

"What?!" Ichigo shouted. "You just said we were back early! And just because you've taken care of the invaders already, we-"

The world exploded with fire. Rangiku jumped backwards. There were several hiding places that burst of fire could have come from. She'd seen firebenders who could send their attacks half across a village. _Not that much of a challenge in as small a place as this._

Urahara smiled. "Never said they were gone, did I?"

******

Five days. Had they really been walking for five days? Between the stops for the evening meditation, which left Izuru dead on his feet, and the unchanging landscape, it felt like much longer. But the sun didn't lie. 

At least he hoped it didn't. After the incident with the Spirit World's time he was hesitant to trust his own senses. And it seemed his paranoia was getting worse. They'd gotten caught in a mudslide the previous day, and afterward, when he'd offered to wash Gin's cape-jacket along with his own clothes, Gin had talked circles around him until he'd withdrawn his offer. It was a strange thing to get hung up on, but Izuru couldn't get it out of his mind. It was a bit odd how Gin walked around either naked or fully clothed. Or, again, it could be his own paranoia getting worse.

"Ready for another round?" Gin asked, having put out the cooking fire. The nights were surprisingly warm with them being as far north as they were, which made leaving unnecessary light on in any form foolish.

Izuru looked down at his hands. They weren't shaking, but he felt like he couldn't have curled then into fists if he so had had help. There were no injuries, no cuts or bruises, but they hurt. And still: "Of course."

Taking refuge in the trees Izuru and Gin sat down face to face, a meter apart. A weight was settling on Izuru's shoulders, which was starting to get almost as familiar as Gin's smiling face. 

"Why so nervous, Izuru? Wabisuke running you ragged?"

Izuru took a deep breath. "I- It's not really that. It's just..."

"You've been doing very well," Gin said. "No need to be nervous now."

Izuru sighed. "I'm just being silly."

Gin frowned theatrically, resting his chin in one hand. "Hmmm, can't be the training. You're far too polite to complain about that and you are driven to complete it or Wabisuke never would have accepted you. Could it be...?" His eyes grew distant, as if they were looking straight through Izuru's head. Seconds later, Gin clapped his hands together as if in triumph. "Hah! I know what it is. You want to test your strength in a real battle, is that it?"

Izuru started. _Am I really that easy to read? We've known each other for less than two weeks! Maybe he's just really good at guessing what other people are thinking?_

"Ah, I see." Gin got up and held out a hand, offering to help Izuru follow him. "Can't have you training without truly knowing the results now, can we? I admit that would be as frustrating as running along a track everyday and never getting to test your stamina out in the real world. Wouldn't want you to lose interest in the training."

Izuru took Gin's hand and let himself be pulled to his feet. "I won't lose interest," he hurried to assure Gin (and any spirits that might be listening in on the conversation). "But I would be grateful if I could be given the chance to try what I've learned somewhere outside of the Spirit World. I would like to know how it's affected my bending."

"Wise words, and still so polite. How could I refuse?" Gin's smile once more reminded Izuru of a pleased cat-monkey. "Very well. We'll postpone our visit to the Spirit World. Make yourself prepared to fight."

"W-won't our Guides-?"

"They'll understand. And we won't really have kept them waiting long. As you've seen, time works differently over there."

Izuru nodded. "Where will we go?" he asked. "We haven't run into any soldiers in days."

"You need to think less inside the lines they drew at the Academy and more in the ways of the real world," Gin said, his tone of voice chiding but gentle. "Why go looking for an opponent when you have a sparring partner right in front of you?" 

Izuru gulped. He'd sparred before, of course, several times, but... "Are you sure?"

"Why wouldn't I be?"

"If you say so." Izuru took a few calming breaths, keeping his gaze focused on a spot somewhere to the right of Gin's head. "What are the rules?"

"No rules. There aren't any in real fighting, are there? And yes, that means you're allowed to bloodbend me."

"W-what?!"

"Come now, you can't say you aren't curious to see what's happened to your strength these past five days. I've had some training in resisting bloodbending. I'll be a challenge."

"Resist?" The idea was so foreign to Izuru it brought all other thoughts to a grinding halt. "Is that possible?"

"It's tricky," Gin said. "Took me a while to figure out. Let's just say I had a very insistent teacher."

That brought up some unpleasant memories. Izuru didn't delude himself that he'd known Gin long enough to tell one smile from the other, but with the fair share of experience he'd had of _insistent teachers_ , he was pretty sure he knew what that meant.

"If you're sure..."

"I won't go easy on you either," Gin said, jumping out of the tree, vanishing from Izuru's line of sight.

_He's serious_. Izuru's hands sought out the water bottle. _He's fast. Rushing after him is a pointless strategy, I'll just get trapped in a whirlwind or knocked against a tree._

He closed his eyes. If given a choice, a true choice, he wouldn't have done what he was about to do. But Gin, as a fighter, was far above him in skill, if his eyes hadn't been lying to him. He could be an even tougher opponent than Wabisuke. His normal options when it came to a course of action were useless to him.

There was water everywhere; water in the trees, water under the ground, drops of water in the grass. Water in blood, however, felt very different from all of those. Gin was waiting for him on the ground, unmoving.

_Has to be a trap. Then again, I'm not exactly a threat. He doesn't need to hide or play tricks._

"You coming, Izuru?" Gin sounded amused, but when didn't he? "Or have you changed your mind?"

Izuru jumped down. Gin stood in the middle of the road - well, more a path than a road, this high up in the mountains - shoulders relaxed and grin wide. "Ah, joining me at last! Thought you were going to play a waiting game with me. Would have been a good strategy. I have no patience whatsoever."

Somehow, Izuru knew that was a lie. "Don't want to keep our Guides waiting."

"Well then. Shall you start or shall I?"

Izuru raised his hands. They were trembling. "Are you sure?"

"So concerned," Gin said. "It's quite touching. You don't have to worry about me, Izuru, I'm used to it. Better practice on me than on someone who can't take it, am I right?"

And didn't that bring back pleasant memories. "I could kill you."

This admission didn't bring about the horror he'd hoped to provoke. Instead, Gin looked impressed. Or maybe he was faking being impressed. Izuru was really getting tired of second guessing all his conclusions. "Could you? Interesting. You must have practiced your bending quite a lot for that. Exactly how could you kill me?"

"I could put pressure on your heart, stopping it from beating. I could call all the water to your arteries, causing them to burst. I could..." He was getting nauseous. 

"My, my. I think we should start with something less violent. Can you get me to kneel?"

This brought Izuru up short. It was the way Gin had said it, his smile turning into a smirk, his voice teasing. Izuru could feel himself blushing. He decided to ignore that. "I can."

The smirk spread into a grin. "Then prove it."

Izuru concentrated. His hands stopped trembling. With in seconds Gin was on his knees; still smiling.

"Good work," Gin said, voice steady. It was eerie, to see him kneeling without shaking or gasping. He looked normal, as if he'd chosen to follow Izuru's unspoken order rather than having been forced to. "Is there any difference?"

_Except for you?_ Izuru thought, then concentrated on thinking of an answer. It was different. Bloodbending had always come easy to him, at least according to his teachers, but now... Now it took no effort. Keeping Gin on his knees was more an afterthought than actual bending. 

"It's easier." His voice was shaky. He was sure his blush had left his face and rushed down to his feet, taking the rest of the blood with it. He was starting to feel lightheaded.

Gin nodded, as if in perfect understanding. "Good, then I'll start fighting you."

Izuru gasped. This was more familiar and yet not. He had no idea what Gin was doing, but whatever it was it was making it harder to keep control. He needed to concentrate. He'd never had to concentrate this much just to pull water downwards.

"You're strong," Gin said, pushing up to sit on the back of his heels. There was a fine sheen of sweat on his brow. "Not as strong as you could be, but this is a good start." He was getting to his feet.

Izuru gritted his teeth and pushed, pressing his palms to the ground. Gin fell back down to his knees. There was resistance, strong resistance. Izuru wouldn't be able to keep him down for long. 

Gin managed to wrench an arm out of the grip of his bloodbending. A gust of strong wind blew up dust from the path, crashing against Izuru like a wave. His eyes stung from it.

"Can't rely on brute strength, Izuru," Gin said from somewhere behind the dust cloud. "That'll just get you killed."

He had to agree with that. _Think of it as hand-to-hand combat_. Had he been fighting Momo without bending, physical strength would have been an advantage, up to a point. The reverse was true for Renji. And through fighting Renji, he'd long ago learned how to turn an opponent's strength against them. Momo had taught him how the same thing could be used against him.

Izuru let go completely and waited. The dust cloud settled, leaving him with a view of an empty path. He closed his eyes, reaching out to feel where Gin had disappeared to, and gasped when a strong gust of wind made him stumbled and fall.

"Only fair that I push you to your knees in turn," Gin said from somewhere among the trees. "Less thinking, more action. If this were a real battle, I'd have had your head by now."

That much was undeniably true. Izuru held no illusion that this was Gin at his best. He guessed he should be grateful. "Do your worst. I can take it."

Laughter, from somewhere to his left. "Really? You sure you won't regret that?"

"I won't." He struggled to his feet, only to be pushed back down again by an insistent gale.

"Don't think you're ready for that yet," Gin said, this time from his right. "I like you, Izuru. Wouldn't want you to get hurt."

There. "I don't wish to hurt you either." He pushed, but this time he pushed **up**.

"Element of surprise," Gin said, dangling in midair above a nearby tree. He wasn't outright shaking yet, but Izuru was quite sure it wasn't just the breeze that made his jacket tremble. "Now we're getting somewhere."

Izuru held his breath. The legs and arms were the most important targets to keep still. Some masters could bend by just moving their head, but Izuru doubted that even nightly training sessions with a Spirit Guide could teach that to someone who hadn't even turned thirty (that is, if his estimation of Gin's age was correct).

A loud explosion, somewhere in the distance, broke Izuru's concentration. Gin fell with surprising control, landing on his own two feet with little effort. He'd also landed on a quite narrow branch. If Izuru hadn't been so busy trying to locate the sound of the explosion, he would have taken the time to be impressed.

Gin got down from the tree as quickly and gracefully as ever. There was another explosion. This time Izuru had the presence of mind to locate the source. "It's coming from up that hill. We should-"

There were lips on his. It wasn't a deep kiss, or a long one, but it couldn't have been mistaken for anything else. And yet, as soon as Gin pulled back, Izuru began doubting both his senses and his memory. _Did he- Did he just-?!_

"Awww, you're adorable when you blush like that," Gin said, his tongue darting out to wet both his upper and lower lip in one motion. Izuru couldn't look away. "Ready to go save some hapless villagers?"

"I-"

"Good!"

Gin took off along the path. All Izuru could do was follow.


	6. Chapter 6

_I need to get down on the ground!_

The roof in front of her exploded into shrapnel, splinters the size of arms flying everywhere. The explosion left her ears ringing, but she didn't let that faze her. Hesitation left you dead.

Shuhei stumbled next to her. He was favoring his left leg and there was blood spreading over the tiles. She grabbed his arm and pulled him towards the next roof. There was ladder.

"Everybody all right?!"

Ichigo. Rangiku spotted him jumping to the next roof, above them. She pushed a grumbling Shuhei into a shed and waved at Ichigo. "We're fine! Tell my Captain or Lieutenant Kuchiki to get down here. Shuhei's gotten a little beat up. Not dying, but he'll need his leg seen to if he's going to help out with this."

"I can still fight," Shuhei said. He was paling. He looked about as ready to jump out and fight the Powerful as a feverish child. Well, a really big feverish child.

Rangiku gave him another shove, careful not to make his leg bump into the tools or shelves. "Right, and I love doing paperwork and hate drinking. Stay still!"

Shuhei glared at her, but stayed where he'd been pushed to.

The sound of boots hammering against the ground pulled her attention to the mouth of the alleyway they'd hidden in. Luckily, that was only one way in, other than jumping from the roof.

The first soldier to appear around the corner took a rock to the face. She stumbled and fell, tripping the two people behind her. Rangiku took the opportunity to bring up a wall, barring the entrance completely. _All I got to worry about now is aerial attacks._

As if on cue, fire began to rain over the edge of her wall. Punching the ground, Rangiku pushed the earth to form a dome over herself and the shed. _Should have knocked on wood._

Hissing, like water thrown on the stones in a sauna, combined with the alleyway suddenly losing light, made her peak outside her shelter. The serpent like body of an ice dragons curled through the air above her, extinguishing the fireballs with its body. Hitsugaya must have found a well.

The boy in question - her _Captain_ \- jumped down into the alley moments later. "Where is he?"

"The shed," Rangiku answered, letting her shield fall. "Where are the others?"

"Kurosaki, Ishida and Kuchiki doubled back over the roofs to circle around them. Ayasegawa and Madarame are on the roof above us, as you can hear." Ikkaku's battle cries were hard to ignore. Rangiku could hear running on the roofs, shouting and hitting. Luckily, it sounded like Ikkaku and Yumichika were doing well.

"And the two strangers?" It would just be typical if they were the ones to have signaled the trap.

Hitsugaya looked up from where he was healing Shuhei's leg. "The man called Urahara commandeered them. Said he could use two firebenders."

"Is that good or bad?"

"I don't know yet."

The wall at the entrance to the alley had begun to crumble. By the shaking and noises it seemed there were both fire- and earthbenders on the other side, working on it. "Guess we'll have to wait and see."

The wall fell. There was a crowd of the Powerful's soldiers on the other side. The time for thinking was over.

Rangiku smashed her hands into the ground. Waves of earth crashed against the attacking crowd, tumbling most of them. She ducked and rolled as two of the firebenders responded by sending flames her way, leaving black marks on the ground where she'd been standing.

And then the earth rebelled against her. The ground shook and cracked as the enemy got to their feet, five of them stomping about like drunken idiots. She could barely hold enough ground together to keep herself safe, and with the shed being her responsibility there was even less of a chance she'd make it for long.

_Looks like old tactics won't work_. Rangiku backed up against the shed and dug her toes into the dirt. She closed her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest, taking a deep breath. She struck out with her hands.

A cloud of dust appeared around the enemy soldiers, followed by screaming. A lot of screaming. She flinched, yet her hands remained steady. They were fleeing, crawling away on bleeding hands and knees.

"I'm done," she heard Hitsugaya say. She didn't turn around. "Go help the others secure the village. We'll be right behind you."

Rangiku gave a curt nod. Letting the wall of dust fall, she made her way to the mouth of the alley. There were flecks of blood everywhere, but nothing large enough to signal that someone had bled out. That took some weight off her shoulders.

The main street looked abandoned. That could mean anything.

"That's an interesting trick." Rangiku started. Urahara was sitting on one of the few whole roofs, further down the street, in plain sight. "Haven't seen an earthbender do that before. They've cleared out for the moment, you should hurry over here before they get back."

Rangiku steeled herself, then made her way over to Urahara without running. "It's not a trick," she said once she was standing next to him. "It's like putting up a wall, just in smaller pieces. Small and very sharp. And of course you have to keep them coming or the dust will settle right away. Where's Abarai and Hinamori?"

"The firebenders you brought with you?" Urahara said. "Ah yes. I asked Uryu to take them to the shelter, in case the enemy decided to be clever and circle around the village. We've already got guards there, of course, but you can never be too careful. There's a lot of children in there."

"So careful you send complete strangers to aid your guards?"

"They looked honest enough."

"I'm getting the impression that you're not taking this overly seriously."

It was hard to tell with the odd hat casting shadows over his face, but for a second Urahara's expression seemed to darken. "Believe me, I'm taking this very seriously."

Rangiku shifted her weight from one foot to the other and turned her gaze to the end of of the main road. "So what happened? Why did this all start?"

"Not sure," Urahara said, voice once more light and cheerful. "Business as usual, then _boom_ , houses on fire. We haven't felt the consequences of war before this, being this remote, so maybe it's karma?"

"Right. You're telling me the Powerful have sends soldiers - _a lot of_ soldiers - out into the middle of nowhere and you have no clue why."

"That's about it."

Movement out of the corner of her eye made her turn her head to look back up at Urahara. Hitsugaya and Shuhei appeared on one of the roofs behind him. Their attention seemed to be elsewhere, focused on something far in the distance. 

Urahara got to his feet and stretched, as if he'd just woken up from a pleasant afternoon nap. "Brace yourselves, here comes the next wave."

Wave was an appropriate word for it. Hoard could do too. There were men and women rushing down the main road, all wearing the colors of the Powerful. They even had the signs of their bending on their helmets and shoulders.

They were met by a wall of wind, pushing them back into those running behind them. Urahara jumped down from the roof and landed beside Rangiku without as much as flinching. Even if she'd softened the ground, Rangiku knew a leap from that height would have jarred her knees.

_Airbemder? Huh, then we have three who aren't descendants of Avatar Aang._ Rangiku shook her head. There was no time for solving mysteries before this battle was over.

The others were gathering on the roofs. She could see Ikkaku and Yumichika climbing onto the same roof where Hitsugaya and Shuhei were, while Lieutenant Kuchiki and Ichigo had made their way onto a roof on the other side of the street.

_Higher ground,_ she thought to herself. _Would have been helpful if it was actual **ground.**_

The enemy soldiers had gotten back on their feet. They were spreading out, climbing onto the shaky remains of buildings and running down alleyways left and right. They payed little mind to where they ran, just threw themselves one way or the other, away from the main street. It was almost as if they were running from something attacking them from behind.

"Do you have guards on the outskirts of the village?" Rangiku asked, stamping on the ground to stop the oncoming soldiers; the ones that hadn't had the presence of mind to find an alleyway to duck into. As if in desperation, they'd begun hurling all they had at her and Urahara; fire, water and earth all at once.

"There's just me," Urahara said. Then he raised his voice and said: "The earthbender and I will see to the main street. You on the roofs, make sure they don't make it to the West part of the village."

Lieutenant Kuchiki leaned out over the edge of the roof opposite the one Urahara had been sitting on. She looked ready to ask something, but was cut short by Urahara shouting:

"Rukia, hold this!"

_There's an awful lot of people addressing Lieutenant Kuchiki by her first name._ The thought was a brief one, lost in dodging and attacking. 

Urahara had thrown something to Lieutenant Kuchiki. There had been a glint of something blue; a gem? 

"Can you see what's driving them here?" Rangiku called up to the roofs, ducking away from a bolt of fire. 

A jet of water froze one of the enemy soldiers to the ground. "Not yet, it's too far away."

_I wonder what's-_ She didn't have to wonder for long.

The lines of the enemy were thinning out, vanishing down the last of the allies or beaten to the ground. There was dust in the air - not her dust, not this time - and as it cleared human shapes could be seen hanging in the air. There was no wind, no pressure of a tornado. And there were two men approaching, at the back of the line, not wearing the uniform of the Powerful.

One was blond, wearing traditional Water Tribe clothes. The other was making his way over the rooftops at a calm pace, like he was taking an evening stroll by a river. He had silver hair and a smile that looked far too permanently stapled to his lips.

She recognized that face. "You! Get down here and fight, traitor!"

******

The village was in chaos when they got there. Gin pulled Izuru into a pair of bushes before they could be spotted by the soldiers of the Powerful.

"This is a village, not a military base," Izuru said, keeping his tone of voice hushed. "Why is there an entire camp of soldiers outside of it?"

"We'll just have to find out," Gin said. "Stay low and follow me."

The camp wasn't right outside the village but instead down a hill, quite far to the right of the path leading up to what once must have been a peaceful, remote place to live. From what Izuru could see from his vantage point below the hill the village was built on, the houses had seen better days. There were burn marks along the walls. Not _a_ wall, just regular, wooden house walls. It didn't look like a place prepared for war.

Gin led him to the edge of the camp. Izuru could feel the breeze shift ahead of them, could see Gin's fingers twirl in time with it. They avoided all the enemy guards; walked close enough to touch some of them, but always hidden, always out of reach of eyes and ears. The wind probably had something to do with that as well.

Gin found them an empty tree where they sat down to observe. Izuru found himself breathing as if in preparation for meditation. It helped, a little. Helped draw the focus away from what could be happening up in the village. There had to be children there. He'd never known the Powerful to be merciful towards anyone, not even children. His adventures with Renji and Momo were proof enough of that.

The soldiers seemed to be preparing for something. They were walking about the camp with a purpose, all of them. No guards standing at attention, no people cooking dinner; just a lot of men and women moving about boxes and taking down tents.

"They're moving," Izuru said, more to himself than Gin.

Gin replied anyway: "Yes. But the question is: are they moving away or closer?"

A running man caught Izuru's eye. He was coming down the narrow path that led to the camp, down from the road that lead to the village. He made halt as soon as he reached the camp and saluted a woman who approached him.

Gin's hands moved. The wind shifted, bringing the man's words to them. Izuru had trouble tearing his eyes away from Gin.

"They've got reinforcements," the runner said, gasping for breath. "Seven of them. They came through the trees on the other side of the village."

"Through the trees?"

"Yes, very skilled, all of them. They moved like they were on the ground. Must be the Society's soldiers."

Even from the distance there was between the woman and their hiding place, Izuru could see her back stiffen. "Damn. Alright, we'll have to make a full-on assault. All soldiers, to the village!"

"Now, why do you think they're getting so upset about a reinforcement that consists of _seven_ people?" Gin asked, as they watched the soldiers throw down their boxes and tents, and instead rush to grab bottles and helmets.

Izuru narrowed his eyes, straining them to try and make out details of the anthill before him. "The Society's warriors are known to be strong and clever. Most people would be worried to know they'd come to be their opponents."

Gin just looked at Izuru, who felt at lost for words. Then an idea struck him: "But there's at least two hundred of them and only seven from the Society. They obviously didn't feel threatened by whatever warriors the village already had, which makes the fact that they're now arranging a very hasty attack quite strange."

"So?" Gin asked.

"So there must be something in the village that they're after. And now they're worried that the Society has sent people to take whatever it is away."

Gin's smile could have been scary, if his eyes hadn't glinted with something that could have been pride. "Excellent deduction. What do you say to us going up to the village and having a look? Wouldn't do to let them attack innocent civilians."

"I'm with you."

Gin nodded. "Good to know you'll have my back, Izuru. I'll be counting on you."

Izuru returned the nod, then followed Gin down from the tree. It was odd, and a little bit silly, but the fact that there was someone who'd seen him bloodbend, who'd _let himself_ be bloodbent, who still trusted him to have his back in a fight...

It felt good.

Making their way up to the village undetected wasn't easy. The sound of the soldiers' marching drowned out whatever noises they made, but there had been guards left at the camp and they weren't standing still. Gin had Izuru ducking and weaving out of bushes until Izuru legs and back began to ache.

Somehow they made it to the top of the hill without being discovered. The fighting had already started, the soldiers having parted into two groups. The largest of them had stayed right outside the village, blocking the main road, while a smaller group of about twenty soldiers had made their way inside.

Minutes later, Izuru could here explosions and rumbling in the not so far-off distance.

"Sounds like they've run into resistance," Gin commented, leading the way up into another tree. This one had branches that almost touched the remains of a house that once upon a time must have been a pottery shop. There were shards everywhere. "Guess we won't be doing this alone."

Izuru gave a curt nod. They hadn't talked about it, and yet he knew Gin would give a signal when they were supposed to join in the fray. _Wish fighting alongside Momo and Renji could have been this easy._

Ten minutes later the larger group of soldiers began to stir, advancing forward into the village.

"I can see a few people on the roofs," Gin said from the branch above the one Izuru was sitting on. "Doesn't look like much opposition, unless they have people hidden in the buildings."

Izuru made to comment, but a roaring gale drowned out his words before he could speak them. The entirety of the enemy soldiers took a step back, the first ones stumbling several steps backwards. It even shook the tree Gin and Izuru had occupied.

"Hmm, interesting. Don't you think?"

Izuru leaned further out from among the leaves, trying to catch a better view of the main street. He caught sight of a man halfway up the street, who jumped off a roof and fell far too slowly to be a regular person. "He's an airbender?"

"It would seem he is," Gin said. "Must be from the Southern tribe. Well, what's left of it."

"There are airbender tribes left?"

"More like small clans, scattered all over the world. We try to keep away from the public. I'm sure you understand why. The last world encompassing war didn't work out well for us."

Izuru snapped his mouth shut, biting back the question that had been on the tip of his tongue. Instead he said: "I'm sorry."

Gin chuckled. "Not the time to be polite, Izuru. Now we fight!"

A gust of wind - no storm wind or tornado, but stronger than a breeze - followed Gin down out of the tree. He landed right on the path behind the soldiers. Izuru held his breath. _Should I follow?_

"Hello, boys and girls!" Gin said, smiling in a friendly manner. "Do you, perhaps, recognize me?"

As one, the soldiers all turned around and spotted Gin. And then they started to run.

"Ah, it's good to have a reputation," he said, as Izuru joined him on the ground. "Gives you an extra edge in a fight, as it where. Would you do the honors?"

In shocked silence, Izuru watched the soldiers scramble over each others' backs to try and get away from them. From Gin. "W-what?"

"I'll go up on the roofs and you'll take the ground. That will give you a chance to test the limits of your bloodbending, don't you think?" Gin was up on the roof before Izuru could answer.

_Right, bloodbending_. The village was little more than burnt out buildings and smashed belongings. It wasn't as if he would kill them. If anyone deserved having the water in their bodies controlled by someone else, it was people who did things like this.

There were many of them. Too many to grab at once. Gin had begun to send down gales from where he stood, felling soldiers left and right, but there were more than enough of them to keep going. More than half of them seemed to have gotten over their initial panic and sent both fire, earth and water Gin's way. These projectiles the man in question just dodged, spinning in circles and blowing his opponents' attacks back at them. The rest were seeking refuge in alleys or buildings.

_Better neutralize the dangerous ones._ Izuru took aim for the ten soldiers who seemed most in control of their fears; the ones with the best aim. It took a fair share of concentration to get it done, but once he had them, they flew into the air like toys thrown by a child.

He vaguely registered that other soldiers were turning around to take aim at him. They were little more than shadows at the edge of his vision. _Have to let go..._

A gale strong enough to blow down a house rushed along the street. It tugged at Izuru's clothes and hair, but it didn't hit him as hard as it seemed to have hit the soldiers. They went tumbling helter-skelter, under the ten people Izuru had floating.

"Great work, Izuru! You can put them to sleep now."

_Does he want me to kill them?_ The panic only lasted two heartbeats. _Oh, of course._

Denying the brain oxygen was nothing you did lightly. There were a hundred things that could go very wrong. But in combination with healing, it was possible to use it to induce deep sleep.

Water leaked out of the bottle at his belt, pushing the cork out of the neck. It snaked its way through the air and wrapped itself around one of the soldiers' necks. Her eyes quickly grew heavy.

He was on the third one when a loud shout shattered his concentration:

"You! Get down here and fight, traitor!"

_Traitor?_ Izuru glanced from the stranger to Gin and back again. _It could very well be true. I haven't known him long enough to-_

A voice at the back of his head that sounded a lot like him from a long time ago, before the Academy, said: _Is that it? A complete stranger shows up and accuses your friend of treachery and you believe her over him? He saved your life, twice, remember? And he's brought you in contact with the Spirit World! You owe him your loyalty._

Letting the soldiers out of the grip of his bloodbending, Izuru focused all his attention on the woman who had shouted. He would be prepared.

******

"Someone you know?" Urahara asked, following Rangiku's gaze to the silver-haired man on the far-off roof.

"You could say that," Rangiku answered through gritted teeth. She elbowed soldier in the gut and trapped another one in a fissure that clamped tight around his legs. "He's bad news, that's for sure. He might not be on the side of the Powerful, but he's no friend of ours, whatever he says."

"Noted." Urahara took of in a whirlwind of destruction, sending soldiers flying like leaves.

Rangiku set the ground shaking, jumped a counter attack from another earthbender, then encased at least twelve soldiers in a dome. That would have to do. _Priorities! If Ichimaru is here, he's the biggest threat. Whatever he's after we can't let him have it._

"Captain!" she yelled, forcing her way through the crowd of enemy soldiers.

Hitsugaya's face appeared in the crowd, heralded by a pillar of ice that struck seven soldiers out of his way. "Yes, Matsumoto?" he said, as he froze a woman on the spot, trapping her from the waist and down.

"Gin Ichimaru is here. I'll take care of him, I know how he fights. Just give me a clear path."

"Understood."

The ice path that appeared had soldiers on their asses within seconds. Rangiku, on the other hand, had practiced for exactly this. She crouched down, braced herself, and then set off at a dead run. Sliding down a makeshift field of ice was usually one of her favorite training sessions - she'd admit to having been less than professional more than once under such training - but at this moment all she could think about was the smiling bastard standing at the end of it.

_Smiling, **always smiling!** He's at least got guts enough to face me._

There were no words as she rushed him, only a cry of rage. She'd crush that smug face under a block of-

She came to a shaky halt. Her legs weren't working. Her arms weren't moving. It felt like there was something in her blood, crawling around in her veins, strangling her from the inside.

The man with the blond hair that she'd seen earlier stepped forward, one arm raised. He looked her square in the eye and said: 

"I'm sorry, but I can't let you do that."

******

She was strong. It felt like holding a live wire. If he hadn't practiced holding onto Gin, he'd never have been able to keep her still. As it was, he managed, but only just.

"I'm very grateful for the gallant rescue, Izuru," Gin said, putting a hand on his shoulder. "I'll take care of the others. Just hold her for me. I'll be right back."

Easier said than done. The moment Gin vanished out of sight the woman began to struggle in earnest. But that wasn't the only thing unusual about her. _There's something-_

A jet of water crashing into his gut derailed his train of thought. There was a young woman, no older than eighteen, a few yards further up the street. She was surrounded by soldiers and keeping them away with projectiles of ice.

Each time there was an opening, however, she sent water or ice his way. Most of it missed, as he still had the ability to move enough to dodge, but it was getting even more difficult to stay on his feet and keep a hold on the older woman at the same time.

_I won't be able to keep this up for long._ He was out of breath and his vision was getting blurry.

Silver appeared in the crowd ahead of him. _Gin._ The man in question pulled the young woman away from the soldiers and slammed her against a wall. He leaned in close and whatever he said to her had her eyes widening.

A fireball flying straight at Izuru's head drew his attention away from that confrontation. The woman he was bloodbending was getting harder to grasp. Blood was rushing from his head to his arms, leaving him with tunnel-vision.

_I won't be-_

"Time to go, Izuru." Spoken right next to his ear. "You can let her go now. Gently."

Izuru lowered the woman to the ground as carefully as he could, breathing hard. "Not sure I can run."

"Do your best then. I'll cover for us."

Stumbling, Izuru took a deep breath and ducked. The burn of fire brushing against his back was a clear reminder that he had nothing nice waiting behind him. 

"What did she mean by traitor?" he asked as they passed the village's entrance.

"Those are questions best asked later," Gin said, grabbing a hold of his arm. "For now, I suggest we focus on running."


	7. Chapter 7

Rangiku gasped for breath the second she was released. _Figures Ichimaru had gotten himself a bloodbender._ She staggered to keep her balance. _It'd be suicide to follow him out into the woods._ She choked back a scream of rage.

Around her, the Powerful's soldiers seemed to have called a retreat. There were men and women scrambling to get past her, not bothering to send any sort of attack her way. Ignoring them in turn, she made her way to the center of the main street and waited.

A great ice dragon rushed past her, chasing out the last of the soldiers. Shuhei landed next to her, a second later. "Are you alright?"

"My blood is boiling for all kinds of reasons, otherwise fine," she said once she had her breath back under control. "Is anyone hurt?"

"We're fine." Yumichika made his way out of an alley, sauntering out of the shadows as if he own the entire village. Completely normal, in other words. "Ikkaku took a ice spike to the knee, but Captain Hitsugaya's already patched him right up, as you can see."

Ikkaku and Ichigo were making their way over the rooftops, laughing like idiots. They looked ready for another fight or ten, eyes shining and grins wide. Abarai and Hinamori were walking right behind them, along with Ishida. They were the last to gather on the main street.

"Who was that?" Ichigo asked as soon as he was close enough. "Didn't know there were any more airbenders left, other than the ones living in the Fire Nation and old man Urahara here."

"A traitor," Rangiku spat out before anyone else could answer.

"But he helped-"

"He also took what the soldiers were here for and most likely threatened to kill Kuchiki," Hitsugaya said, face blank."I wouldn't start singing his praise if I were you."

_What were they here for?_

Ichigo's eyes went wide and his smile fell. "He did? Rukia, are you hurt?"

"I'm fine." Lieutenant Kuchiki sounded anything but. She had no visible wounds though. Rangiku could guess what was weighing her down and it sure as Koh wasn't bloodloss.

Urahara turned to look at Lieutenant Kuchiki, expression one of mild concern. "Do you have what I gave you, Rukia?"

Lieutenant Kuchiki hung her head. "I'm sorry, Mr. Urahara, but Ichimaru took it from me."

"Then we need to go after them!" Ichigo said. "Our village didn't get this damaged for us to let the enemy win!"

He made a move to storm towards the woods, but Hitsugaya blocked his path. "No we won't. We know Ichimaru far too well. He used to be one of us and has more than one trick up his sleeve. He will not fight you fair and square out in the open, and he knows more ways to kill from the shadows than you can imagine."

"And he has a bloodbender with him," Rangiku said, glancing at Abarai and Hinamori. Neither of them reacted. "Trust me, boy, if there was any chance of winning, I would already have gone after him."

"Leave it up to me, then."

They all blinked and turned to look up at the roofs. There was a woman standing there, hands on her hips and daggers in her belt. Rangiku glanced at Hitsugaya, but as she didn't get a signal to prepare for battle she simply took a step closer to the members of her group.

"Yoruichi!" Urahara said, giving the woman a wide smile. "Had I known you'd be visiting, I would have made tea."

"Shut it," the woman said and jumped down join them, landing with easy grace. "What was it that they stole?"

A look of discomfort rushed across Urahara's face. "They, ah..."

"Spill it, Kisuke. This isn't the time for any of your secret plans."

"I, eh-"

"Just tell us!" Ichigo grabbed a hold of Urahara's shirt and shook him, none too gently. "You've been keeping that from us for weeks! We deserve to know what we've been risking our lives over."

That seemed to deflate Urahara. "Very well," he said, his voice more a sigh than anything else. "It was a device of my own invention. It's a small crystal, used for channeling chi. It's helpful during healing, amplifying the powers of any waterbender who uses it."

"It's a healing device?" Ichigo let go and stepped back, confusion written clear as day on his face.

"Not exactly." Urahara tugged at the edge of his hat, lowering the brim. "It amplifies _all_ forms of waterbending. There's really no way to pick and choose."

The silence as those news sank into everyone's minds was deafening. Rangiku did her best to compute the implications. _Ichimaru has a bloodbender now..._

Yoruichi was the first to speak. "You're telling us you invented a weapon."

"It wasn't meant to be one." All the cheer, false or not, was gone from Urahara's voice, leaving something dead in its wake.

"That hardly matters now, does it?" Yoruichi had her arms crossed over her chest and one eyebrow raised, the very picture of unimpressed. "What matters is that we get it back before it's used to do damage."

"She's right...and who are you, by the way?"

Yoruichi looked over at Yumichika and gave him a disarming smile. "Not important right now. What's important is that Kisuke here has made a mess of things, _again_ , and I'm going to have to help fix everything. How is this my life?"

Urahara said nothing. Rangiku got the impression that had he been alone with Yoruichi, he would have shuffled his feet and lowered his eyes, like a guilty schoolboy. 

"So, what's our next step?" Ishida asked. "The village is out of danger, isn't it?"

"It should be," Yoruichi said. "There's nothing of value here to the Powerful - no offense - so they'll concentrate their efforts elsewhere."

"Meaning?"

"The Society, most likely."

Hitsugaya shook his head. "They don't know our location. They can't attack what they can't find."

"That's where I have to be the bearer of bad news, I fear," Yoruichi said. "See, I've been in contact with your Captain-Commander. He sent me on a little mission, actually, to spy on your enemies. Seems someone in your camp decided to blow your cover about a week ago. You have a fleet heading your way."

Rangiku felt the ground sway under her feet; very metaphorically for once. _They can't know! No one would- Ichimaru! Who else would betray us to the enemy?_

"You said who you were didn't matter!" Ichigo shouted, looking ready to have an aneurysm. "How does this not matter?!"

"Has nothing to do with who I am, does it?"

"Did you find out who leaked the information?" Rangiku asked, before Ichigo could continue.

In answer, Yoruichi shrugged. "Not sure. All I found out was that the Powerful think they got it from someone high up in the ranks of the Society. That could just be talk though. No mention of names."

Rangiku huffed. "Ichimaru. It has to be him. Probably gave them the information in exchange for the location of whatever the water amplifier is called. The first attacks of soldiers were most likely just a distraction, to make sure he could get at it without effort."

"So they were lying about the information being from someone high up?" Ichigo asked, his baffled expression signaling that he was about to lose the thread of this conversation completely.

"Two months ago, Gin Ichimaru was one of our Captains. I'd say that's pretty high up."

That left Kurosaki gaping like a stranded fish.

"But Ichimaru isn't a waterbender," Hitsugaya said, frowning. "Why would he expose the Society for something that has no value to him personally?"

"His little bloodbending friend is able to use it," Rangiku said, looking for all the world as if the word tasted foul. "A bloodbender by the name of Izuru. Ring any bells?" She fixed a glare on Abarai and Hinamori, who both paled.

"Izuru wouldn't- He can't- He's not a bloodbender!"

"What did he look like?" Hinamori cut in, before Abarai really could get going on his confused and enraged rant. "The bloodbender."

"Blond with bangs over one eye," Rangiku said and tried not to flinch as the spark of hope left Hinamori's eyes. "He wore traditional Water Tribe clothes of some kind. Young, about your age I think. You got separated how long ago?"

"A few days before meeting you," Hinamori whispered, unseeingly staring at a spot somewhere on the ground. Rangiku looked away when she started crying; not loudly, just tears welling down her cheeks.

"Still doesn't make much sense," Ishida said, pushing his glasses back up to the bridge of his nose. "Why would this Ichimaru person suddenly decide to find himself a waterbender ally and steal Urahara's weapon just like that? Where's the strategy behind that? What is his plan?"

"Ichimaru never has a plan," Rangiku said. "That's what makes him so infuriating to fight. And there's no telling how long he's had his claws in Abarai and Hinamori's friend. He' never exactly been known for staying in one place for long."

"Huh," Ichigo said. "Sounds like you know him quite well."

Rangiku shrugged. "As well as anyone knew him. Didn't talk much to anyone but Captain Aizen and the Captain-Commander, when ordered to. Liked to sit up on the village roofs and stare at people in his free time. Didn't go out drinking with colleges, didn't talk to anyone unless it was to tell them something unpleasant or odd. Creepy, that's all I've got to say about him. Mad, probably."

"Oh." 

"We don't have time to stand around here all day!" Yoruichi said, elbowing her way into the middle of the group. She grabbed a scroll from her belt and unrolled it, showing off the Captain-Commander's personal seal.

"I've already sent a warning to the Society. They should already be preparing for the attack. I thought I should make myself useful and recall the nearest group of soldiers, meaning you, - which is why I'm here at all, if you were wondering - so get over your staring and start running! We need to get back and aid the preparations and if I have to step back from retirement to do so, you sure as Koh are joining me!"

She paused. "You coming, Kisuke?"

"Eh." Urahara rubbed at the back of his head, putting his hat askew. "With my track record with the Captain-Commander, I don't think that's a very good idea."

"I figured."

"Wait, old man Urahara is from the Society _too_?" Ichigo said. "Why doesn't anyone tell me these things?!"

"Because you don't matter," Yumichika deadpanned, earning himself a glare that he easily ignored.

"Everyone, start moving!" Hitsugaya said, his voice cutting through the conversation like a heated knife through butter. "I won't see the Society under fire without me at the front line defending it and I assume none of you want that either. We're going."

"Have a safe trip!" Urahara called from behind them as they set off at a dead run. "Don't give yourselves heart attacks with all that running! Probably won't help defend your friends."

"Why can't he ever just shut up?" Rangiku heard Yoruichi mutter, but she sounded more affectionate than annoyed.

Rangiku ignored the rest of the group after that, focusing on running and planing. She needed time to deal with the guilt in silence. _It's ridiculous,_ she thought, though it was more like a voice at the back of her head speaking to her than just thinking. _No one would have done anything even if you'd told them he'd "felt wrong" all this time. You're being silly. No use in dwelling in old regrets._

A tap on her shoulder pulled her away from that train of thought before it could gain true speed.

"That Ichimaru," Arabai said, his words slow and careful. "Why was he banished from the Society?"

Rangiku looked away, only to have Hinamori run up next to her as well. "If he's tricked Izuru into going with him, made him a _bloodbender_ , we deserve to know what kind of person we're up against. Please."

Rangiku took a deep breath. It wasn't as if keeping it secret mattered any longer, especially to outsiders who wouldn't understand the implications.

"He tried to kill the Captain-Commander."

******

"This is far enough I think."

Izuru blinked, forcing his eyes to focus. They were still in the forest. Oh, well, _a_ forest. For all he knew, he could have been out of it for hours, days even. "Where are we?"

"Far away from the enemy," Gin said, easing him down to sit on a tree stump. "Not that I think they'd be stupid enough to pursue us when they had each other to deal with."

Izuru's head was spinning, yet he wasn't the least bit dizzy. He was out of breath, yes, and ached all over, but he wasn't dizzy. "Why would the Society's people attack us? Why would one of them call you a...?"

"Traitor?" Gin's smile thinned. For a second he looked cruel, playful and watchful all at once. "Maybe I am one. Or maybe she is. What do you think?"

"I think..." What _did_ he think? What facts did he have? "I **know** that you've saved my life when you would have risked much less leaving me to my fate. I know that I know nothing of her, Society or no Society. And I know you've promised to help me find the Society and my friends, while she most likely wants me dead now." He took a deep breath and held it in for a few seconds, before saying: "I choose to trust you."

Gin's mouth widened into a happy grin. "Wise choice, Izuru!"

_I'm not so sure about that_. Except he was, and that scared him more than any death threat ever had.

"You look pale," Gin said. "Do you need to heal yourself? Food? More water?"

"N-no. I just. I just need to sit here for a bit. If we have the time."

Gin got to his feet, spreading his arms in the fashion of the ringmaster of a circus. "With me, there is always time!" he said. "Almost always, at least. We'll stay here as long as you wish. I can push the clouds out of the way so we don't get driven away by rain."

"You can do that?"

"It's quite a handy trick when there's no shelter to be found. You'd be surprised how many times it's helped me avoid a cold during a long journey."

Izuru felt himself relax. This was safe. He was in the middle of an unknown forest, with no food, no shelter, and he'd most likely made the wanted list of the Society, but with Gin he was safe. He just knew it.

Yes, that was still scarier than anything he'd ever imagined.

"Do you travel a lot?" he managed to say, floundering for conversation. The silence was leaving him the chance to notice just how much his legs and arms were hurting.

"A fair amount." Gin sat down on the ground next to the tree stump, leaning back to look up at the sky. "I've seen most of the known world and parts of the unknown. Never been good at keeping still, me. I get restless, staying in one place for too long."

"And how long is too long?"

"That depends," Gin said, smirking, "on how interesting the place is. Or the company."

Izuru steadfastly ignored how warm his face felt all of a sudden. "I see."

"And you? Been out and about the world much?"

"Only since I left the Academy," Izuru confessed, blush turning to one of shame. "My parents... They were traditionalists. They wanted me to go to one of the Poles to study under a 'true' waterbending Master. I was foolish enough to insist on staying in Republic City. And when they passed..."

He waited, unsure of what to say next, as well as ready for comments. There were always comments. 

"Go on."

Izuru started, then gave something akin to a laugh. _Should have seen that coming._ In his own roundabout way, Gin Ichimaru was staring to make sense to Izuru. _Or maybe I'm just going insane._

"The Academy is very, how should I put this, _concerned_ for the safety of their students. Once you enroll, you're rarely let outside the gates - for your own safety, of course - and there are no field trips. So no, I haven't traveled much."

"And you're sure you wish to make the Society your destination? After today, I mean."

_So it's still 'today'? Good to know_. "I..." The question left him unsteady. He hadn't even considered changing his destination. But now that Gin had mentioned it... "No. I'm sure."

Gin turned his eyes away from the sky to look straight at Izuru, who did his best to meet his gaze with a steady one of his own. "You very sure about that? You might be in trouble with them, all of them, not just the ones in the village we passed. You willing to risk that?"

"I need to find Momo and Renji," Izuru said, voice steadier than it had been in days. "I can't let them think I'm dead. And we should clear up the misunderstanding that happened at the village. Whatever history you have with them, we only tried to help. They can't fault us for that."

Gin said nothing, only continued to look at Izuru as if he was the most fascinating thing he'd ever seen.

"They need to know I'm alive," Izuru said again, looking down at his hands resting in his lap, fingers laced together. "After that... Well, we'll see when we get there, won't we?"

"You're a loyal one, aren't you, Izuru?"

Gin's hand was in Izuru's hair. It was warm and comforting, while it at the same time put every nerve in his body on edge. Warm breath gusted against his ear as Gin spoke, adding to the adrenaline flowing through his veins.

"Would you mind coming with me, after?" Gin asked, voice a low hum. "Traveling the world all on my own gets lonely sometimes. And as you've seen, I've got knack for landing myself in trouble. Would be nice to know I had a talented healer watching my back."

"I-"

One of Gin's hands was making its way down his neck and back, stopping at his waist to slip under his shirt. Izuru gasped and found himself grabbing Gin's shoulders, unsure of where else to put his hands. Without thinking about it, he squeezed his eyes shut. He couldn't tell if he was trying to block out the sensations or savior them.

"You can touch me too," Gin said, sounding as amused as always. His other hand left Izuru's hair and gently grabbed the hand Izuru was digging into his right shoulder. He tugged Izuru's hand free and guided it to his neck. "You want to, don't you? Just don't touch my arms – ticklish."

_I don't know anything about you!_ Izuru thought, refusing to open his eyes. Gin's skin was warm under his hand, his pulse a steady, reassuring beat under his thumb. _We're on the run from people who are supposed to be **good** people. You could be a murderer for all I know! There's a difference between traveling with you and - and - **this**! _

But he wanted to. Denying it would have been one of the biggest lies Izuru ever had told, and with his history that was saying something.

Careful, as if Gin's neck was made of glass, Izuru slid his fingers up, burrowing them into silver hair.

Gin let out a sound that could have been a purr, had it not come from a human throat. "Mind if I kiss you?"

"You've already done that." _Why ask this time?_

"So I have."

Lips against his again, but this time the kiss deepened. Gin's fingers curled and pulled at his hair. Izuru mimicked him, drawing a moan from Gin.

The hand under Izuru's shirt found its way higher, leaving light scratches along his back. Encouraged by the kiss and the way Gin relaxed against him, Izuru uncurled the hand he had on Gin's left shoulder and mirrored this exploration as well, careful to avoid Gin's arms. It took some effort to find the edge of his coat-cape. Izuru didn't leave any scratch marks, only mapped the way Gin's skin felt under his hand; smooth, with the occasional scar.

Gin pulled back, breaking the kiss. Then he moved closer, until they were chest to chest, cradling his chin on Izuru's shoulder. The hug - though it felt far too intimate and yet eerie to be called something so mundane - lasted for a long moment, giving Izuru plenty of time to return it.

He did. Wrapping one arm around Gin's waist and the other in Gin's hair, he pulled him close in turn.

Gin tilted his chin up, putting his mouth right next to Izuru's ear. "You will meet a man called Aizen. Never trust him. And never trust me when we're with him."

"What-?" Izuru's grip on Gin loosened and Gin stood up, looking for all the world as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened.

"You'll understand later."

All Izuru could do was blink in confusion. He touched his own lips, feeling how swollen they were, just to reassure himself he hadn't imagined it all.

Gin turned around and gestured at the biggest of the trees that surrounded them. "I believe we're very late for an appointment with our Spirit Guides. Shall we?"

Trembling, Izuru nodded.

******

"How?" Ichigo said, bringing Rangiku out of her attempt at meditation.

"How what?" she asked him, casting a glance over her shoulder. The camp was still. Yumichika was no doubt at his post on the other side of the glade and everyone else were fast asleep. Whatever she said would be between the two of them, unless Yumichika got bored and decided to eavesdrop.

"How did Ichimaru plan to kill the Captain-Commander?" Ichigo asked, taking a seat beside her on the log. "I mean, I don't know a lot about him, but he's supposed to be this incredibly powerful warrior. He's basically all that remains of the White Lotus, right?"

"All that officially remains, yes."

Ichigo sighed. "Right. And, not that I doubt that this Ichimaru guy is dangerous, but he didn't look like someone who could take down a guy with that reputation. I mean, Urahara looks older than him."

"Age isn't everything." Rangiku frowned. There was that feeling again, as if there was something missing; a memory. _There's a lot of memories missing, idiot brain! Wish you could get used to that or fix yourself. Anything to get you to leave me alone._

"I guess not," Ichigo muttered. "But still..."

"He didn't exactly challenge the Captain-Commander to a fight," Rangiku said, chuckling to keep from hitting something. "It was just - We're a small village full of warriors, not all of them the best of people. I'll introduce you to Captain Kurotsuchi when all of this is over and you'll understand. Sometimes there's infighting. Sometimes that infighting gets out of hand and people die."

Ichigo's mouth fell open, the rest of his expression shifting towards anger. Rangiku continued speaking before he could begin:

"This past year, however, we've lost a lot of people, seemingly at random. People from different Squads, people who didn't know each other. If they'd all been from one Squad, you'd think it was rank challenges getting out of hand or a grudge between Squads-"

"Wait, _what_?!"

A humorless smile tugged at Rangiku's lips. "Subordinates owe their Captains absolute loyalty. It's a questionable practice, I'll agree with that, but it's also one of the most important rules we have. You only have to follow them if you choose to stay in the Society, but if you choose to, you do so with your life as pledge. Officially, all Captains need the Captain-Commander's approval before an execution is implemented, but that's hardly ever enforced."

Ichigo scowled. "Sounds like your Captain-Commander isn't much better than the General of the Powerful then."

Rangiku shoved her shoulder against his, the gesture somewhere between playful and painful. "We're not pretending to be the saviors of the world, idiot. We're a bunch of killers and we know it. Some of us are just more decent than others." She looked up at his face and sighed. "And now I'm scaring you. Sorry. I probably made it sound like the streets of the Society were lined with bodies all day."

"Something like that."

The sigh Rangiku heaved sounded like it came from the bottom of a well. "I'm doing this all wrong. I'm just frustrated after today. The goal of the Society _is_ to ensure peace, and not through ruling the world and killing all who don't agree with us, which is what separates us from the Powerful and what remains of the Equalists. It's just that we've realized that you need killers to catch killers and sometimes that leads to conflicts we don't have the time or resources to deal with in a court of law. Not during war time. Anyway, I'm getting off track here."

Ichigo just started at her until she continued.

"My head's a mess right now," Rangiku said, adding a laugh for good measure. "These people who got killed - which isn't an everyday occurrence in the Society, kindly forget I went off on a rant there - had no signs of trauma. They'd just died and no one could tell why. Until Captain Aizen stepped forward."

"And who is that? Or should I say was?"

"Aizen?" The smile that tugged at Rangiku's lips this time was genuine. "He's probably the nicest person you'll ever meet. He's still around, but it was a near thing. See, he contacted the Captain-Commander one night and told him he might have a lead on the murderer. He said he thought it was Ichimaru."

"How did he know that?"

"Before he became a Captain, Ichimaru was Aizen's Lieutenant." Rangiku closed her eyes, tried to picture it. Even if she knew it was true, had _seen it,_ it felt like a surreal thing to say. "It seemed Ichimaru had confided in Aizen that he'd figured out a way to suck the air out of people's lungs. Not enough to collapse the lungs, but enough to suffocate them. An examination from the healers would confirm. At least, that was the plan."

"Let me guess. Ichimaru didn't wait around for them to start searching for evidence?"

Rangiku nodded. "He'd followed Aizen to the Captain-Commander's office. Attacked at soon as he realized what they were talking about. If it hadn't been for Aizen...Well, let's just say that fire can't burn if there's no air in the room."

Ichigo squared his shoulders. Rangiku could tell he was trying to hide a shiver. She chose not to comment, instead turning her full focus onto her guard duties. No one would sneak up on her, no matter how odd the conversation had made her feel. _Stupid memory._

After a long pause, Ichigo said: "She's one of you, isn't she?"

Rangiku followed his gaze to where Yoruichi lay sleeping, then shrugged. "Probably. The spies report directly to the Captain-Commander. I wouldn't recognize any of them, least of all the retired ones. Do you trust Urahara?"

"...I guess."

"Well, he seemed unconcerned with having her lead us away and she did have the Captain-Commander's seal. That takes quite some effort to fake, so if she's an enemy soldier she's a damn good one. Means we at least won't have to fight incompetent people."

"That's an optimistic way to look at things."

Rangiku forced a smile. "Isn't it just?"

******

Wabisuke helped Izuru get back on his feet without comment.

"I'm sorry," Izuru said. "I should be paying better attention."

"Perhaps."

They weren't in the swamp anymore. Wabisuke's realm was darker, but drier; an endless mass of corridors and caves, lit by sparsely placed torches. It was strange how at home Izuru felt there. Or maybe it wasn't. Maybe Spirit Guides chose people they resonated with. No one had ventured into explaining the selection process to him yet, other than 'survive a beating'.

"Gin said that we'll reach the Society tomorrow," Izuru said, to break the silence.

"Yes, Shinso told me." Wabisuke slung his chain over his shoulders. The motion was almost ritualistic, something he did after the completion of each training session. "Are you nervous?"

"I'd be stupid not to be."

"True."

The torches were flickering, some of them going out. Izuru had come to learn that meant his time in the Spirit World was ending. At least there no longer was a risk he'd wake up with days having gone by without him.

"What are your plans, for when you reach your current goal?" Wabisuke settled himself on a rock that had melted out of the shadows, resting the ball on his chain in a groove.

Izuru stared over his shoulder, into the growing darkness. "No certain plan. That would be foolish as well. I need to find my friends, but after that... After that I'll do what's wisest."

"And how will you decided what that is?" Wabisuke asked, no more than a silhouette against the faint torch light.

"That," Izuru said as the darkness enveloped him, "I'll just have to wait and see."


	8. Chapter 8

"This is an outrage!"

Rangiku did her best not to flinch when the Captain-Commander's fist hit his desk. The silence that surrounded him was oppressive to the point of stifling, all trying to avoid calling the Captain-Commander's attention to them. It would have been hilarious to watch, if you'd been an outsider. Rangiku was not that fortunate.

"I ordered Gin Ichimaru captured and executed two months ago. How has this not yet been accomplished?"

No one answered. No one was stupid enough to think it was an actual question.

"Anything else to report, Captain Hitsugaya?"

Hitsugaya let his arms fall from having been crossed over his chest. Yoruichi had already retreated from the center of the room and had sat down on one of the tables - and for some reason she was receiving dark glares from Captain Fon - leaving Hitsugaya alone as the focus of everyone's attention.

"I have nothing more to add," he said. "If Ichimaru hasn't sold the weapon off to the Powerful by now, he has a waterbender on his side who will be able to use it. The question is how loyal the waterbender is to Ichimaru."

"Or if Ichimaru is coming back here at all," the Captain-Commander said, sounding more like he was thinking out loud than actually wishing to start a discussion. "Dire news. What can you tell me of the waterbender?"

Abarai and Hinamori sat up straight as steel rods the second the Captain-Commander's gaze turned their way.

"Izuru Kira," Hinamori said, looking like she was just keeping from stuttering. "That's his name, sir. We have been friends for six years, since we all were accepted to the Academy in Republic City. He is a kind, gentle person, who wouldn't harm anyone unless they threatened him or someone unable to defend themselves. He can fight, but he prefers to heal, and I've never seen him..." She trailed off, her lips pressed together into a thin line.

"Izuru isn't a bloodbender!" Abarai said, some courage returning to his voice after initial shock of the Captain-Commander's attention. "Whatever happened in Karakura must have been a trick. No offense Ms. Matsumoto."

Rangiku waved him off. _If that were Shuhei or Yumichika on the line, I would be standing up for them too. Maybe even for Ikkaku._ The man in question gave her a confused look as she winked at him.

"You're saying that this friend of yours is no threat to the Society?" the Captain-Commander asked, face a blank mask.

"Exactly!" Abarai said, emphasizing his words with a nod. "It'd be like a turtle-duck trying to take on a pack of eagle-wolves."

Silence fell again. The Captain-Commander was frowning, staring at a spot near the door. Rangiku could practically hear him thinking it all through.

_I wonder if a team will be sent out?_ Rangiku thought, sagging in her seat. _Hopefully there will be drinks before this is over. If I have to take the night shift **again** , I swear I will break someone's nose. Or trick someone into breaking someone else's nose. Now that-_

"I have decided." The Captain-Commander's voice had them all listening, if not sitting at attention. "The current threat from the Powerful is too big for us to be able to spare any soldiers. Call everyone back. We will begin war preparations in the morning."

"Yes, sir!" the rest of the room said, in near perfect unison.

"After we have defeated their ships, I will choose who to send after Ichimaru. Dismissed."

Rangiku hurried to the exit, before Hitsugaya could catch her eye. There was most likely a pile of paperwork waiting for them in his office, but she couldn't have cared less. She'd seen Aizen approach their two refugees. Hinamori had looked as overwhelmed by his kindness as most people were and Abarai - who, now that Rangiku reflected over it, probably knew him already - looked pleasantly surprised.

She wished them all the luck she had to spare.

Before she'd gotten more than a few meters, Ichigo appeared at her side, Rukia and Ishida close behind.

"Your leader really is a sweet old man," Ishida said. "I can really see how you feel safe and happy in this cozy little village of yours." He gave a pointed look to the guards that occupied each street corner.

Rangiku rolled her eyes. "Tone down the sarcasm. I never said we were aiming to be safe and happy. We're aiming to win the war. Don't you think he's the sort of leader who could get that done?"

"Point."

"So, where are we going?" Ichigo asked, breaking into the conversation like a foghorn cutting through mist. "Is there a weapon storage somewhere around? I may be a firebender, but I learned to fight with a sword long before I knew how to bend anything."

"Which is why we are going to meditate," Lieutenant Kuchiki said before Rangiku could open her mouth. "You need to reconnect with your Spirit Guide. Stop bothering Lieutenant Matsumoto."

"But Rukia," Ichigo said, his tone of voice approaching a whine.

"No buts."

Ishida looked like he wanted to make some kind of protest, but Rukia had dragged Ichigo out of their line of sight within seconds. This left Rangiku and Ishida standing side by side in a fairly empty street, Ishida frowning and Rangiku doing her best not to laugh out loud.

"You drink?" she finally said, glancing at him out of the corner of her eye.

"I, eh-"

"You drink." Rangiku grabbed a hold of his arm and began pulling him in the opposite direction of where Ichigo and Rukia had vanished. "Trust me, Equalist-boy, you'll need some alcohol in you if you're going to survive having all us benders around for the foreseeable future."

******

"It won't be long now," Gin said, looking over his shoulder at Izuru. "It's been a while since I was back there - a few months at least - but I highly doubt they up and moved the entire village during my absence. Keep on your toes! They'll have guards posted all along the path."

The path in question was little more than a trail for wild animals, straight through a great forest. They'd past over a mountain before entering it and Izuru had seen it stretch all the way to the ocean. It had to be a five day walk along its ridge, at the very least. There had also been no sign of a village. Not a single roof or ringlet of smoke from a fireplace.

Doubt had begun to gnaw at Izuru's insides, merciless and target-oriented.

_Don't ask 'are you sure?'._ Izuru kept close to Gin, while looking everywhere but at him. Each shadow behind a tree could be an attacker, a guard thinking them a threat. _Or they could be soldiers from the Academy, who hired Gin to lead me here._

_You're being ridiculous!_ It was the voice of his younger self, laughing at him. _Why would they bother with something so elaborate and time consuming? And why would Gin have bothered teaching you how to reach the Spirit World? Why find a Spirit Guide for you, only to sell you off to the Academy's thugs?_

_I'd rather not think about that._

"Something wrong?"

Izuru started, eyes automatically leaving the shadows to meet Gin's gaze. "N-no."

Gin's smile was almost gentle. "Ah, poor Izuru. I didn't mean to make you jumpy." He frowned. Or his expression shifted to a mockery of one, at least. "Though I don't think the guards are what has you so on edge. What could be bothering Izuru so terribly?"

He rested his chin in his hand and tapped a finger against his lips in a thoughtful manner. For a second, Izuru's thoughts fled, rushing back to the two times he'd been kissed by Gin. Part of him wanted to ask when - _if_ \- something like that was going to happen again. The rest of him, the more hesitant part, didn't dare.

"It's really nothing," Izuru said, chasing his wayward thoughts back on track. "I was just wondering what that woman meant, back in the village." He swallowed past the lump in his throat. "About you being a traitor."

"I was wondering when you'd work up the courage to ask about that again," Gin said. "What do you want to know?"

"Just..." Izuru searched for words. They were fluttering out of his reach, refusing to form proper sentences. "Why? Why was she so angry with you?"

Izuru had seen more than a few law enforcement officials and soldiers chase down criminals; had been the one being chase by them more than once. They could be angry, yes, but it was usually a general anger at criminals at large. The woman had been focused. That meant personal or close to home.

"A huge misunderstanding," Gin said, giving a one shoulder shrug.

"About what?"

"Oh, they think I wanted to kill their Captain-Commander."

Izuru froze in place. His feet refused to take another step. His heart skipped a beat, in the most unpleasant manner possible. " _What?!_ "

"As I said, it's all a terrible misunderstanding," Gin said, brushing Izuru's words aside with a wave of his hand. "I have no, and have never had, any interest in murdering him, I assure you. Sadly, they were too upset to listen to reason, the last time I was here." He paused to heave a sigh, a tinge of weariness touching his smile, before it turned cheerful once more. "But seeing as you needed a guide to take you here, I decided to kill two birds with one stone and sort everything out, once and for all."

Izuru blinked. He wasn't sure if the conversation had gone too fast or completely been thrown off track. "When did you decide that?"

"When we first met."

To prevent his mouth from falling open, Izuru clenched his jaw shut for a few seconds. "You honestly mean that?"

"What can I say, you have that effect on me." Gin whirled around, the long sleeves of his robe whirling right along with him. "I like having you around, Izuru. You help me think clearly."

_And you fill my head with mist,_ Izuru thought, but couldn't hold back the smile that spread over his face. "I'm honored."

"No formalities," Gin said, taking Izuru's hands in his. "Remember?"

"I remember."

Gin's hands were working their way up his arms. Izuru wasn't sure if he was happy that he had no sleeves to keep the hands from touching skin, or not. He tried to suppress a shiver as Gin's hands made their way up to caress the inside of his upper arms, fingers painting invisible patterns there.

"Shy, Izuru?" Gin whispered into his ear. "You can say no, you know. I'll stop whenever you ask."

"It's not that," Izuru said, his own hands finding purchase on Gin's shoulders. "It's..." _You're so much more skilled than I am. I'm only a refugee, fleeing to keep away from people who'll force me to kill. All I've ever done is small and insignificant. You...you are great. You are what I hope to be one day. And every time you do something like this, a big part of me is asking why, waiting for the trap to spring. Because why would you want someone like me?_

Of course, he said nothing of that out loud.

"Then if you want me, you should just go right ahead," Gin said, low enough that Izuru barely caught it. It felt like being told a secret, as silly as that sounded. "No need to be proper with me, Izuru. If I'm touching you, I assure you that means I want to be touched in turn, as long as you remember the rules."

Izuru let go of Gin's shoulders. For a moment, he wasn't sure where to put his hands, with Gin's arms being off limits. Unlike Izuru, Gin wore layers upon layers of clothes; anywhere he touched would be more fabric than Gin, really. Finally, Izuru settled for wrapping his arms around Gin's waist and pulling him into a hug.

If he hadn't been listening for it, he wouldn't have caught the soft gasp that rushed past Gin's lips; almost as if Izuru had surprised him. _Odd._

"Much better." It was apparently Gin's turn to grab a hold of Izuru's shoulders, his fingers light and yet steady. He relaxed into the hug, leaving Izuru to support most of his weight. "Shall we continue? I know there will be a soft bed waiting for you at the end of today's journey."

Stuttering, Izuru let Gin untangle himself from the hug.

"Stay close and quiet now," Gin said. "It'll be a while before we're past the guards. I'm sure they've changed the routines since I left, so it'll be a bit of a challenge."

******

A loud clanging woke Rangiku from her not too deep slumber.

She was lying on a floor, which her neck and back weren't too happy about, and there was light seeping in through a nearby window. A tavern, then. She never went to sleep on the floor in her own apartment. Well, she hadn't for a few years at least.

Blinking herself back to full consciousness, she struggled to sit up. Her head was aching, but that was only to be expected. There were other people on the floor alongside her; also expected. Well, Ishida hadn't been completely expected, but she had a vague memory of dragging him to the tavern in the first place, so she guessed she shouldn't have been too surprised that she'd gotten him drunk. Or maybe he'd gotten himself drunk. You never knew with uptight people like him.

She took in the mess of on the table with absentminded fascination. _Huh, the Equalists' bowmen really can make bows out of anything. Better leave before someone makes me pay for the repairs._

Getting to her feet was less of challenge than she'd feared. The sky outside was thankfully gray, with only the occasional ray of sunshine breaking through the clouds, which made walking to the barracks of the fourth Squad less painful than it could have been. The alarm bells were enough of a punishment as it was.

The people on guard were rushing about the village as if their hair were on fire. People higher up in the Squads were standing on every street corner it seemed, yelling out orders. No sign of any other Lieutenants or Captains though.

She nearly had a heart attack when a hand grabbed her shoulder. Yumichika gave her an unimpressed look when the ground rumbled under their feet.

"Ships have been spotted on the horizon," he said, his expression grim. "Most Captains have ordered their soldiers to the beach. The earthbenders have orders to set up underwater obstacles. My Squad is spreading out to keep an eye on the mountains. Seems the Captain-Commander is suspecting an attack on two fronts."

"Great, just what I needed right now." Rangiku massaged her temples. Her thoughts were slow as syrup. "I thought the enemy was days away. The Captain-Commander said-"

"The Captain-Commander assumed the enemy fleet would have to maneuver around the labyrinth of islands that would have been in their way," Yumichika said. "Reports just came in from the island lookouts. Seems the Powerful have gotten their hands on ships from the Fire Nation fleet. They've been blowing up everything in their path, saving themselves at least three days of travel. The lookouts just got the radio contact back up."

Rangiku swore under her breath. "All right, all right. I need to sober up. Have you seen Captain Hitsugaya?"

"Last I saw him, he was heading to the emergency council meeting. All Captains got called in, on suggestion from Captain Aizen. But you wouldn't have heard of that, I assume." Yumichika's words were light and playful, but the look in his eyes was anything but.

"Spare me the venom," Rangiku muttered, head still aching like it had been put in a vise. "I was on my way to the fourth to get this fixed, wasn't I? Not my fault the enemy decided to be clever for once." A question managed to dig itself out of the landslide that was her current thought process. "Why have they called a meeting? We already have a plan of defense, of which a major part relies on them all being down at the beach by now."

"The two refugees we took with us." There was a glint of true rage in Yumichika's eyes as he said that; a big contrast to his otherwise blank expression. "The friends of the waterbender."

"Abarai and Hinamori?"

"They've gone missing."

Rangiku let that sink in. It felt like being hit by a mental sink bomb. "They could be setting traps all over the village!"

"The guards are looking for them. Get your head seen to and then come help us get some order here. Could use more sober Lieutenants to order us lowly soldiers around."

Yumichika vanished around a corner, no doubt on his way to set some traps of his own. Rangiku grumbled under her breath about snooty Fifth Seats who thought they could say whatever they pleased and nearly walked right into Captain Ukitake as she rounded a corner.

"Have you seen Rukia?" he asked, his usual kind smile replaced by a look of worry.

"Sorry Captain Ukitake, I haven't," Rangiku said, trying not to breathe too much in his direction. She already had a reputation as a drinker; didn't need one about being drunk _on the job_ too.

He sighed. "Very well. If you see her, please tell her to come meet me after the council. We need to go through the plan of attack with the newest recruits a second time, just to be on the safe side."

"I'll tell her that."

Ukitake rushed off, looking as stressed as Rangiku had ever seen him. Though as this was Captain Ukitake she was talking about, that didn't say much.

The fourth Squad's barrack was in chaos. The part of it that served as hospital wasn't crowded - not yet at least - but there were people in at least half of the beds and the scent of blood was heavy in the air. The staff were rushing about the room as heedlessly as the guards had been outside, goal-oriented but clearly terrified.

They all froze as a stretcher got carried into the room. It had a white cloth pulled over it.

"Everyone, get to work!"

Rangiku twitched and grabbed her head, as if holding onto it would stop loud noises from entering her ears. She'd never heard Lieutenant Kotetsu yell like that.

_Can't blame them,_ she thought, taking a seat on an empty bench. _It wasn't as if any of us thought we'd ever have to use the defense plan. Not exactly our proudest moment. A secret kept for sixty years, exposed for the world to see on our watch_. She was swallowing back her own panic, fighting the hangover nausea for control of her body. _And here I am, reeking of sake and beer. Not my proudest moment._

"Ms. Matsumoto, are you in need of assistance?"

Rangiku looked up and found herself face to face with Hanataro Yamada. 

"Hangover," she said, fighting back a flush of shame. "I can wait."

Yamada smiled, somewhat strained. "That will only take a second to fix. Please hold still."

She'd never understand how his bending worked. Then again, she wasn't educated in the art of healing at all, bending or not. All she knew was that his hands got very warm, he put them on your forehead, and when he took them away you felt better. 

_Maybe he's boiling my blood, like a really quick, local fever_. The thought didn't do much to ease the tension in her shoulders or her head. It certainly did nothing to sooth her nausea.

To distract herself, she turned her attention to the rest of the room. At least forty bedridden patients, all with wounds that would have made a less experienced soldier cringe.

"This many injured, already?" she asked as Yamada let go of her head, her voice barely above a whisper.

Yamada's smile vanished. _He looks small_ , she found herself thinking. _He can't be much older than Captain Hitsugaya._

"They're the surviving lookouts from the islands," Yamada said. "They-"

The door to the barracks banged against the wall. A man whose name Rangiku couldn't place was hanging off the door frame, looking ready to faint any second. "Lieutenant Kotetsu, you must come quickly!"

The woman in question got up from where she'd been kneeling next to a patient. "What has happened?"

"It's the Captains," the man said between gasps. "The council hall got very quite all of a sudden and when we looked inside they were all unconscious. We can't wake them up!"

" _All_ of them?!"

"Yes!"

Rangiku was on her feet and running before he'd finished speaking.

******

Gin must have known the Society quite well, Izuru reflected, as they made their way through the forest and into the village itself. The appearance of it was fairly sudden. There was just trees, trees, and more trees, until there was a dip in the ground and there it was.

It was quite a clever design, he had to admit. The houses had all been built in a miniature valley, barely two meters deep and quite wide. There were plenty of trees left in the streets and next to the houses; massive things that must have been older than the village by centuries. There were even some trees growing on the roofs of the houses, smaller than those on the ground, masking what could have been seen of the tiles and walls from the mountain tops.

There were guards everywhere. They'd sneaked past at least eight that he had seen, just in the last half hour, and he was quite sure he wasn't skilled enough to have seen all the people who Gin had avoided. Izuru was fighting the urge to grab the other man's sleeve, like a child trailing after its mother. _If I lose sight of him, I'm dead._

As if sensing his distress, Gin turned his head and gave Izuru a mischievous smile. He didn't say anything, but his expression was message enough.

_He's enjoying himself_. There was no shock to this revelation, not even a hint of surprise. He was probably getting far too used to Gin's company for that to happen. _Hopefully that means there's no risk we'll get caught._

The streets of the village weren't empty; far from it. There seemed to be a guard at every corner, glaring into the darkness, armed to the teeth. Gin weaved his way around them and Izuru followed closely, trying to recall every lesson he'd ever taken in sneaking and hiding. There had been an uncomfortable amount of that during his later years at the Academy.

He went as far as to hold his breath until they were safely inside a building. Then again, as it was a building located _in the Society_ , it probably wasn't much safer than being outside.

"Relax, Izuru," Gin said, shutting the door behind them. "There won't be any guards in here and the walls won't let any sound out. You can breathe, if you want."

Blushing, Izuru let the air rush out of his lungs. He didn't bother asking if Gin was sure. At this point, asking questions felt like giving up.

"Ah, right on time."

The voice, kind and calm as it was, made Izuru jump and whirl around, putting himself between its source and Gin. A man stepped out of the shadows. He wasn't a particularly remarkable man; brown hair, glasses and a kind smile. Couldn't be more than in his early thirties and looked about as threatening as a rabbit-deer.

_Rabbit-deer are poisonous,_ Izuru reminded himself, backing up a step. A hand landed on his shoulder and only the knowledge that it belonged to Gin kept Izuru from jumping again.

"Of course." Gin's voice sent warm gusts of air brushing against Izuru's neck. "I've always thought of punctuality as a virtue, at least between friends. And speaking of friends, won't you introduce yourself to mine?"

The stranger's smile widened and his eyes crinkled at the corners. He gave the impression of a person who preferred talking over fighting. "I am Sosuke Aizen," he said, giving a respectful bow. The name struck a cord in Izuru's memory, but he was too focused on the situation at hand to think more of it. "You may address me as Sosuke, if you feel comfortable with that."

"I am Izuru Kira," Izuru found himself replying. Gin was rubbing soothing circles on his neck. "It is a pleasure to meet you." He returned the bow as well as he could without dislodging Gin's hand.

"As it is to meet you." Sosuke straightened up. "Would you like some tea?"

"No thank you, we just ate," Gin said, not giving Izuru a chance to answer on his own. "Shall we get straight to business?"

"Business?"

Sosuke gave Izuru a calming smile. "I asked Gin here to fetch something for me. To be honest, I wasn't sure he would fulfill my request, but it seems he has. Thanks to you, perhaps?"

"Perhaps," Gin said, voice light and airy. "Izuru had some business in this area as well, so I thought I might as well sort things out with you. Told you I was going to fix the little misunderstanding." The last was whispered so low Izuru knew it was meant for him alone.

Letting go of Izuru's neck, Gin stepped around him until he was face to face with Sosuke. Without a word, he stuck his right hand into his left sleeve and pulled out something small, round and blue. It looked like a jewel of some kind; a sapphire maybe or a blue diamond.

_Did he **rob a bank**?_ Izuru thought to himself, unable to tear his eyes away from the jewel. _It must be worth all of my inheritance and then some!_

Sosuke held out his hand and let Gin place the jewel in his palm, a look of utter patience and tranquility on his face. "Thank you."

"No problem," Gin singsonged. "Now, I don't know about you, but me and Izuru have been running around all night trying to get here. You don't happen to have a place were we could rest? And have there been two new arrivals anytime this week? Izuru is looking for two of his friends."

Sosuke pocketed the jewel before nodding. "I do believe I have a place where you can keep hidden." He turned around and began leading the way down a dark hallway, speaking all the while. "There were two new arrivals, yesterday; Renji Abarai and Momo Hinamori. Quite skilled young people. I'm thinking about recruiting them for my Squad."

_He's a Captain,_ darted through Izuru's mind, mostly drowned out by relief. Renji and Momo where there. The Powerful hadn't gotten to them and neither had the Equalists. They were safe.

"They also said they were looking for a friend of theirs. A waterbender."

"That would be Izuru," Gin said, smiling at Izuru over his shoulder. "Quite skilled too. You should contemplate him for a position as well."

"Oh? And you don't want him for yours?"

The meaning of those words sent Izuru's mind spinning. At first he thought it some form of innuendo, which set his thoughts along the line called _How did he know?!_ before a new solution presented itself:

_**Gin** is a Captain?!_

"You know me, Sosuke," Gin said. "Always been more of a follower than a leader."

This earned him a chuckle from Sosuke, who'd vanished somewhere in the darkness ahead them. Izuru could hear a door being opened, somewhere ahead of them. With no light other than that of a few high placed windows he could barely make out the silver of Gin's hair and he wasn't more than half a meter away.

The room they stepped into was even darker.

"No one will disturb you here. Come find me when you've settled in."

Izuru felt Sosuke's shoulder brush against his as the man walked past them, out of the room. 

"Where are we?" It felt just as stupid out loud as it had sounded in his head, but what else was there to say?

"The barracks of the fifth Squad of the Society," Gin said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Don't worry, you'll know it by heart before long. Why don't you take a seat on the bed over there?"

There was an undertone to the words that had Izuru's legs shaking as he made his way in the direction he thought Gin had pointed. He fumbled his way in the dark. There was a vague white outline about two meters ahead of him that had to be the bedsheets. Putting a hand out in front of him to avoid crashing into something, he managed to find the wooden outline of a hole the size of a door. And on each side of the door hole...

Bars. There were bars in his way. 

A hand grabbed his head and spun him around. Lips met his, dragging him into a deep, painful kiss. 

"Sweet dreams, Izuru."

Gin gave him a shove and Izuru stumbled backwards, into the cell. The door slammed shut, the bars painting lines across Gin's smiling face. Izuru stood frozen in place. He couldn't formulate a thought, much less move.

Before he could collect himself, Gin had vanished.

Izuru sank down on the outline of white. _At least the bed **is** soft,_ he thought, fighting back the numbness and tears.


	9. Chapter 9

Hitsugaya looked even younger while asleep. It was a fact Rangiku had teased him over more than once during her time as his Lieutenant. Now, that didn't seem quite as funny anymore.

_It's not like it's the first time you've seen him get hurt._ She turned to stare out the window. Hitsugaya's apartment wasn't much larger than hers and the view was far less interesting. Located at the center of the village as it was, there wasn't much more to see than walls and roofs. And trees. But chances were that if you lived in the Society you'd have a view of a tree wherever in the village you lived.

_If Kotetsu doesn't figure out how to wake them up, I'll..._ She'd _what_? She knew nothing about medicine! Nothing!

She stole a quick glance at Hitsugaya again. He hadn't moved since they'd found him in the council hall. At least he was breathing. The healers had been circling the Captains all day, pulling their hair and gritting their teeth, relocating them to their own homes in a last ditch effort to get some reaction out of them. The nurses had left for the night an hour ago, leaving Rangiku to hover alone.

_I'm turning into such a mother-hendog._ She choked back a humorless laugh. _As if that will do any good._

Rangiku was on edge, too much coffee and no sleep taking its toll on her concentration. She should be meditating or sleeping, have someone take over for her, but that felt...wrong.

Her memories were acting up again. Every time she looked at Hitsugaya she got dizzy and nauseous. She was about ready to bang her head against the window until she knocked herself unconscious.

To stop her legs from twitching, she moved to a chair in the kitchen. The kitchen counter was no more distracting than the window. Having known Hitsugaya as long as she had, his kitchen was as familiar as her own at this point. Maybe even more.

_Why didn't we plan for this? Of course there was a risk all the highest ranking soldiers could go missing or be killed!_ Though she had to admit, managing to take them all out at once was quite an achievement. It was a mad situation. She doubted anyone had pictured it happening. had thought it possible. _The first Squad's Lieutenant will think of something. And they're not dead. Not yet at least._

She sighed. _Maybe I should make myself some tea. Calm my nerves._

Her heart started racing. It felt like she was choking. She pushed off from the chair, toppling it and rushed back to the window. She pulled it open and took deep breaths, trying to force the air down her cramping throat. Her lungs were too small. She was staring to see black spots.

On the third gasp, she finally got some air. Her knees were aching, having slammed into the not too soft floor. She was shaking like she'd run a lap around the mountains. _What was **that**?!_

She started when a soft groan called her attention back to the couch. She scrambled to her feet and hurried over to Hitsugaya's side. "Captain?"

Hitsugaya blinked. Then blinked again. Then sat up, tangled himself in the blanket she'd covered him with and fell off the couch, hitting the floor with a dull thud. "Matsumoto?"

"I'm here." She put her hands under his arms and helped him sit up, unsure if she should try moving him further. "How are you feeling?"

"Like I just woke up from a very long nap," Hitsugaya said, stifling a yawn. "What time is it?"

"What's the last thing you remember?"

Hitsugaya froze. Sitting on the couch with the blanket still caught on his legs, he looked the very picture of a child who'd woken up from a nightmare. "I was at the council meeting. The new recruits had disappeared. The Captain-Commander was quite upset. And then..."

"And then?"

"And then I woke up here." Color drained from Hitsugaya's face like water in an unplugged sink. "What happened?" His voice was steady, like always, but Rangiku could see his hands trembling as they curled into fists around the edges of the blanket.

She sat down next to him. She didn't put an arm around his shoulders or ruffle his hair, even if that would have made _her_ feel better. He was still her Captain. "We're not sure. All Captains got knocked out - yes, even the Captain-Commander - and the healers haven't figured out why yet. We had no idea if you would wake up. But if Captain Unohana is awake now, I'm sure she'll figure out what happened," she hurried to add. 

The room temperature had dropped. She could see her own breath in the air, as small cloud of mist and warmth. Rangiku cupped her hands around her mouth and blew, trying to keep her teeth from chattering.

"Sorry." The temperature went up, slowly but steadily.

"It's all right," Rangiku said, lowering her hands. "Not everyday you have to wake up without remembering what happened the day before. That's more my forte."

Hitsugaya gave a huff. She suspected he'd meant to sound annoyed, but she knew it for the amusement it was. "We need to report to the main office. See if anyone else is awake."

Rangiku followed him out the door without question. The streets outside were teeming with activity, even at that late hour. The guards stationed along the way to the main office gave happy shouts as they spotted Hitsugaya, some of them calling out wishes for his future good health and information about other Captains that had begun stirring.

Hitsugaya received them all with an air of silent acceptance, neither grateful nor annoyed. Rangiku, on the other hand, was trying to listen to everyone at once. It was better than thinking about tea, which, when you were trying to avoid it, was pretty much impossible.

It was like being told 'don't think about polar-bear-dogs'; couldn't be done. Each time her thoughts turned in that direction she let it happen, felt the brief spike of panic, and then let the next shout tug at her attention, pushing the panic away.

It kept her on her feet long enough to get to the main office.

The building was crowded, for it being two in the morning. Office workers - or the closest things to office workers the village had - were rushing up and down corridors, for a change not carrying piles upon piles of documents. Most stopped to bow to Hitsugaya and Rangiku, which made walking through the chaos somewhat easier.

Relief washed over Rangiku as Hitsugaya opened the doors to the main room. Captain Kuchiki, Captain Kurotsuchi and Captain Tosen were all seated around the central table, with the Captain-Commander at its head. Those who had Lieutenants had theirs seated a little behind them. 

Rangiku gave Shuhei a smile as she took her seat, though it came across as more of grimace. He returned it with a curt nod.

"Good," was all the Captain-Commander said when he saw them. There were maps spread across the table. Maps with big red circles drawn on them. This was going to be a long night.

"Is anyone else awake?" Hitsugaya asked.

"Only Zaraki," the Captain-Commander said. "But that is of little consequence, now that we know it isn't a permanent condition. We need to revise our plan of defense before the enemy fleet gets within range to use their weapons. As soon as Zaraki returns, we'll get started."

"Tea?" Tosen asked and offered Hitsugaya a cup. He took it. Rangiku did her best to swallow down the bile she could taste at the back of her tongue and averted her eyes.

_What is wrong with me?_ She could see Haineko pacing along the walls, the fur off her neck standing on end, the dark outline of her mouth open in a silent hiss. _What did I drink yesterday?_

_It's not so much what you're drinking that's the problem._ Haineko was in her lap, staring up at her with piercing, golden eyes. Her presence did nothing to sooth the nausea. _Listen to me for once in your damn life!_

Rangiku looked up at the gathered Captains. Realization dawn with the swiftness and pain of a punch in the gut.

"No, don't!" She threw herself towards Hitsugaya, tried to smash the tea cup out of his hand.

"Ah-ah, we can't have that now, can we?"

Rangiku couldn't breathe. Her limbs wouldn't move. Before her, the Captains and the Captain-Commander all slumped forward, fast asleep or dead. All but Captain Tosen, who remained in seat, as if waiting for something. Her fellow Lieutenants had gone flying, nailed to the walls by something unseen but clearly not harmless. Wide eyes met hers, panic in them mute yet shared.

Her head refused to turn, leaving her eyes frantically straining to catch a glimpse of the man standing just out of her line of sight. She knew the voice all too well. _How? **Why**?!_

Captain Aizen stepped into the center of the room, bringing along his usual aura of calm. He was holding his hands out at his sides, as if pushing the Lieutenants away from him.

"I think we need to calm you down a bit," he said to the room at large, as if he was talking to a group of new recruits who'd gotten a little carried away while sparring. "And I know just the place to put you."

The last thing she saw was Gin Ichimaru entering the room, his customary grin in place. The darkness overwhelmed her in seconds.

******

There was no water in the cell. The entire thing was just a wooden box, with wooden bars and a bed made out of wood. He sat on the bed for what felt like hours but couldn't have been more than one. The spares moonlight that came in through the window in the outer room told him that much at least.

It wasn't enough light to see the other cells by, however. He kept hearing sounds of something shifting and making quiet noises on the other side of the room. For all he knew, they were the noises a caged lion-bear made when sleeping.

_Sosuke Aizen,_ he thought, hope stubbornly darting around the edges of his mind. _If I'd listen to Gin's warning, would I have been able to escape? Was it even a real warning? What am I suppose to do?_

He stared at the walls. They were blank and smooth, as far as he could tell in the dim light. The bars had been placed closely together, making it impossible to squeeze out between them. He was trapped.

_Meditation._ That was something the cage couldn't prevent. There was plenty of room to sit cross-legged on the bed. It took a while to calm his pulse enough to make the transition.

He barely noticed when he did. He was still in the cell, but the room took on an eerie shape, as if he were under water. Wabisuke stood opposite him, fading out of the shadows without a sound.

"Trapped, are you?" he said, before Izuru could utter one word.

"W-what? Eh, yes. I am." Izuru sat up a little straighter and was horrified to notice that his body refused to move with him. This left what he thought of as _himself_ a pale, ghostly copy, like a shadow lying on top of his real body. He quickly sat back down, so he wouldn't have to see. "Can you help me?"

Wabisuke nodded and took a step closer, looming over Izuru. "Sweat. You know what that is, I assume?"

"Yes."

Wabisuke smiled. It wasn't a pleasant expression. "Then I advice you to get some exercise. Sitting around will make you weak. And don't bother with breaking out just yet. I have a feeling you'll be needed here."

Blinking in confusion, Izuru watched Wabisuke fade away into nothing. The cell lost its underwater appearance, leaving him alone once more, staring at a blank wall. When he got up, his body followed with him.

"Better get started, I guess," he said under his breath. After a moment of deciding what to do, he lowered himself to the floor and began doing pushups.

The noises from the other side of the outer room were growing louder. He tried to ignore them, focusing on his task, until a voice yelled: "Hey you!" A far too familiar voice, which had him freeze in place immediately. "Yeah, you in the other cage. Can you move?"

"Please answer us! It's very important we get out of here. Your entire village is at risk."

Of course. Of course it had to be them. 

Slowly, Izuru got back to his feet and stepped up to the bars of his cell, wrapping his hands around them for support. "Renji. Momo."

The silence that answered him was deafening. Then:

"You idiot! How did you get yourself locked up? I thought you'd..." Renji trailed off. It was hard to tell if he'd run out of words or simply realized that shouting could call their jailor's attention to them, wherever he may be.

"Why, Izuru?" Momo's more soft spoken question stung worse. "We know you were in Karakura. We know what you did. Why?" 

_Karakura? They must mean the village where..._ A shiver ran down Izuru's spine. _They know._ Cold sweat broke out all over his body and his heart started beating at the speed of a rabbit-deer. _No way out of this one._ "I..."

"If you lie to us, I'll rip your head off!"

Izuru flinched. Renji had never talked to him like that before, voice filled with rage. "I'm sorry. I thought... I don't know what I was thinking."

"Clearly."

"I can get us out of here," he hurried to add, before Momo or Renji could speak further. "I'm not bound. I can-"

"We're supposed to trust the guy _working with the enemy_ to get us out of this cell," Renji said. "Excuse me if I'm not convinced."

That stung. Actually, it hurt worse. It was as if someone had taken a spike of ice and driven in straight through his heart. _And I deserve it._ "I'm sorry."

"Apologies won't get us out of here," Momo said, her words also colored by anger. "When did you learn to bloodbend?"

_No point in lying now._ "I've always known how to do that. Family heirloom, so to speak. Remember all my private lessons back at the Academy?"

"I thought those were for healing," Momo said after a moment, sounding stunned. "Why didn't you tell us?!"

"Because of this!" Izuru hadn't meant to yell, but once he'd started he couldn't stop. "Because you seem to have automatically assumed I'd turned against you as soon as you found out! In case you hadn't noticed, I'm also locked in a cell. Back in the village, I had no idea you were there and I had no idea the soldiers who _attacked us_ were on your side. We were just trying to help!"

"We?" Momo sounded a little more hesitant now. Izuru wasn't sure if that made him happy or not.

"Gin and I." It was hard to speak the name without flinching. He felt foolish. Led around by false promises like some child. "He saved me from drowning, when we got separated. After that, we traveled together, trying to find the Society and you two. I had no idea what his plans were. I still don't."

"He tricked you." Renji sounded almost relieved. "He told you he was going to help you, had you help him doing things you had no idea were bad, and then he stabbed you in the back."

"I'm sorry."

"What are you sorry for now?" Momo asked, sounding almost amused, in an exhausted way.

_Because I'm a gullible idiot. And because I can't stop hoping._ "I-"

Noise interrupted him, this time coming from further away. Footsteps were making their way towards the cells, along with something else. It sounded like whoever was walking down the hallway outside was dragging something with them.

Izuru flinched away from the light when the door to the outer room opened. The torches outside lit up three silhouettes, who stepped into the room without hurry. Several unmoving human shapes floated behind them, like puppets on strings.

Two of the silhouettes were holding torches of their own. As soon as Izuru's eyes had adjusted to the light he recognized one of them as Gin. His first instinct was to shrink back from the bars, but he steeled himself and held fast. Gin gave him a smile, before turning his attention to the man without a torch.

Sosuke Aizen looked as calm and harmless as he had the first time Izuru had seen him. There was a look in his eyes though, mostly hidden by the light reflecting off of his glasses, that made Izuru want to curl up in a corner and hide.

"Gin, see that the prisoners get to their cells."

Still smiling, Gin grabbed a hold of the nearest floating figure, pulling it by the leg over to Momo and Renji's cage. It was difficult to make out in the flickering light of the torches, but Izuru managed to catch sight of their hands and feet; chained to the floor and wall.

Whoever the prisoner was, they were dumped into the cell with little ceremony, slumping to the floor the second the door was shut; as if someone had cut the strings.

_That must be Gin's insistent teacher,_ a distant part of Izuru's brain supplied. Aizen didn't look the least bit strained, though he was holding up five people.

Two other prisoners were tugged into an empty cell. At least, that's what Izuru had thought at first. But as Gin turned to close that door, the light from his torch fell on its corner. There were was a boy and a girl in there; a girl Izuru distinctly remembered Gin had stopped from skewering him with ice spikes back in Karakura.

_What am I supposed to do? Is this what Wabisuke meant? How am I supposed to help here?_ A cold shiver ran down his spine as he thought that. _How do I know I can trust Wabisuke? Gin did introduce me to him. All spirits aren't kind and helpful._

Gin had moved on to a woman Izuru recognized all too well. She'd actually looked exactly like that the last time he'd seen her; only it had been his fault that time, not Aizen's.

Guilt made it hard to move, even as Gin approached his cell. 

Eyes fixed on Gin, Izuru almost didn't noticed when the woman began to struggle. Quick as a skunk-weasel, Gin had her arm locked behind her back. A snap told anyone who cared to listen that he'd broken it. She went limp again.

Without a word, Gin opened the door to Izuru's cell and shoved the woman inside.

"She can't help you escape," Gin said, as if they were discussing the weather. "This house was built on stilts for a reason. And if you don't wish to share cell with a corpse, I suggest you see to that arm of hers."

Izuru met Gin's eyes, feeling like a mouse-chick cornered by a cat-monkey. There was nothing but cold calculation in the gaze that met his. Ducking his head, Izuru gave a small nod and knelt by the woman's side.

******

"...I suggest you see to that arm of hers."

There was something wrong with her right arm. It didn't hurt, but she knew enough about injuries to not take that as a good sign. She vaguely recalled waking up in midair, Ichimaru holding on to her. Then the sound of a bone snapping. There had been nausea too, but that had been before the broken bone, not after.

"Your little waterbender not behaving?" Aizen's voice. It still felt surreal to think of him as the enemy. Maybe she'd get over that eventually.

"He'll behave," Ichimaru said. "Can't promise _I_ will."

The crash had Rangiku trying to sit up. The bloodbender from Karakura - Izuru something - was in her line of sight, trying to get her to lie back down, but she shoved him out of the way with her healthy arm. He didn't put up much resistance, his eyes fixed on something outside their...cell? Was she in a cell?

Another crash. Ignoring the numbness of her right arm, Rangiku whirled around where she sat. The view outside the cell brought her up short.

Captain Hitsugaya was lying on the floor, as was the Captain-Commander and his Lieutenant. They weren't moving. Captain Tosen didn't look to be much better off, slumped against one of the far walls. There was a fire burning by his left leg; the torch he'd been holding had set fire to the wooden floor.

What held most of her attention, however, were Aizen and Ichimaru, facing off in the middle of the outer room.

"The element of surprise," Aizen said, for once looking less than in full control of himself. "I must confess I didn't see this coming." He was panting and clutching at his side, blood dripping from between his fingers.

"My goal in life is to exceed your expectations," Ichimaru said, steadying himself against one of the walls. "Shall we take this outside?"

"I think you should stay exactly where you are."

Ichimaru leaned his head back and straightened up with disjointed movements that spoke of bloodbending. 

The nausea hit Rangiku with full force again. _Sympathy for Ichimaru? Hardly. Must be my arm._ Without looking at it, she let the hand of her undamaged arm brush against her right, trailing up to where the break had to be. Her arm was swollen and still numb. _Lucky he didn't get my legs._

The bloodbender from Karakura had moved to stand by the bars of their cell, eyes fixed on Ichimaru. _Which side is he on then? Working with Ichimaru to betray Aizen? Bet he's regretting that decision right about-_

A gust of wind. A choked off scream.

Ichimaru was standing. He was shaking and there was a sheen of sweat on his forehead, but he was standing, no longer pressed against the wall, one hand held out in front of him.

"What did you do?" Aizen's voice was strained. His jaw was clenched, barely letting the words out from between his teeth. The left side of his robe was ripped into shreds, leaving his arm exposed and bleeding from dozen of shallow cuts.

Ichimaru laughed. "A little surprise I had in store, just for you. You won't be needing that anymore."

He pulled at the air with his other hand. The motion was slow, as if he was moving through quicksand. Aizen took a staggering step backwards, but the gale hit him nonetheless. He crashed against the wall behind him, barely keeping on his feet.

"You fool!" There was blood coming out of Aizen's ears. The wind had put out the torches and the fire consuming the floor, leaving only the moonlight to illuminated the scene before her, but Rangiku knew blood when she saw it. "I will kill you slowly."

"I was hoping you would say that," Ichimaru said, backing towards the exit. He stepped over Hitsugaya and Tosen, as if they were pelts in front of a fireplace.

Aizen didn't reply. The water bottle he always carried with him unplugged itself. Its contents curled up his arm like a snake-fox, wrapping around his arm and side as if to stem the blood flow.

"Catch me if you can!" Ichimaru called over his shoulder and vanished into the darkness of the hallway.

With a curse, Aizen remained in place, eyes locked on the doorway. The water around his arm and side glowed for a few seconds, before haphazardly rushing back into the bottle. Aizen was left with bloody clothes and healed skin. When he pushed off the wall, his steps were unsteady, as if each pained him.

He turned to face Rangiku's cell, his eyes fixated on something. He took an unsteady step towards, only to be knocked over by another gale.

"No cheating!" Ichimaru's voice came from the hallway. "You scared of facing me without it? And if you're going to be strategical, I'd suggest hurrying after me. I have the antidote right here and you have about three minutes to take it from me."

Aizen got back onto his feet. His glasses lay broken somewhere on the floor, leaving his face looking bare and harsh.

Rangiku watched him go in silence. _That takes care of those two. Now all we need is an escape plan, a way to wake the Captains and while I'm at it, why not wish for a new wardrobe and free drinks as well._ Her arm was beginning to hurt. In a few minutes, she doubted she'd be able to sit up.

Next to her left foot, something small and blue gleamed in the moonlight.

******

"You, waterbender."

Izuru started and straightened up, away from the bars. He'd been so focused on the fight, and then on the water Aizen had spilled all over the floor while he healed himself, that he'd completely forgotten about the woman.

"Whose side are you on?" she asked. Judging by the way color steadily drained from her face, she wouldn't be conscious for long.

"I-"

"Ichimaru tricked him!" Momo. Izuru felt the ice spike in his heart melt. "You can trust him! He'll get us out of here."

The woman turned her head with some effort and squinted into the darkness. "Hinamori? I'm guessing Abarai is there with you."

"Here." Renji shuffled closer to the bars of his cell, arms chained behind his back. "That bastard Aizen knocked us out somehow and when we woke up we were here. Can't say much for your hospitality here."

The woman snorted. "I'm sure you'll feel better as soon as you're out of here. Can you move?"

"Not enough to bend," Renji said, scowling. "And I'm guessing you're too far away from anything dirt or metal to get us out?"

"Spot on. Which leaves us with water." The woman turned to look at Izuru again. Her uninjured hand curled around something on the floor. "Here, catch!"

Izuru fumbled, the small round thing nearly rolling out of his hands twice. It was a marble, about the size of a human eye, made of some kind of blue crystal. He recognized it, but couldn't quite place it. His mind was too occupied with the new sensations that were crashing down over him.

"What is this?" Izuru found himself asking, staring at the blue _thing_ innocently resting in the palm of his hand.

"There's no name for it yet, far as I know," the woman said, eying him warily. "You feel any different?"

That was an understatement. He could feel all the people in the room, as clearly as if they each were a lake. He could sense each drop of water inside them, could tell exactly where it was going. It took no effort at all to call on the water Aizen had spilled. It obediently shaped itself into a sphere around the crystal.

"Way to go, Izuru!" Renji crowed. "Now cut us loose! I have some asses I need to kick and they're not in this room."

"I need to heal her first," Izuru said, gesturing at the woman in his cell with his free hand. "I don't know how long this will last and that break looks quite bad."

"Every second is valuable," the woman said, her face ashen. "I'll live."

"I'll work quickly," Izuru said, kneeling down next to her. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw movement from Momo and Renji's cage. No doubt Momo had elbowed Renji into silence.

The shoulder of the woman's undamaged arm sagged. "Fine. As long as you're quick."

Izuru reached out, allowing the sphere of water to pour over her arm. There was something broken about her. The arm was just the obvious part, mended in the blink of an eye. 

He could see Wabisuke, pacing along the wall of their cell. There was a smaller shadow with him, a four-legged creature with tiny fangs and claws that stared at him, silently egging him on.

"What are you-?!"

"I'm sorry." It felt like an invasion, but a necessary one. This was what he'd been meant to do, he was sure of it.

The cell twisted and spun around them as the water encased the woman's head, leaving only her nose and mouth free. Her eyes rolled back into her head. For a moment, Izuru feared he'd killed her.

When she stood up without her body following, he was sure of it.

"Where are we?" she asked, glaring at him. "What did you do?"

Izuru got up and found himself without an outer shell as well. The crystal remained in the ghostly shadow of his hand, leaving his body down on the ground where he'd knelt. "I think we're in the Spirit World."

"You _think_?!"

They were on a moor. Above them stars shone from an otherwise pitch black sky. In the distance, Izuru spotted rock formations - or what he hoped were rock formations - one for each compass direction.

"Do you recognize this landscape?" he asked the woman, doing his best to not cower before her withering glare.

"No." The woman turned her back on him, though he didn't doubt she was keeping track of him out of the corner of her eye. "But I haven't been to the Spirit World in a while. Maybe they redecorated?" The sarcasm was quite expertly cloaked by false cheer. He probably wouldn't have caught on to it if he hadn't been friends with Momo for so long.

They both started as three shadows began to rise out of the moor. Two Izuru recognized. It would take a lot to make him forget Wabisuke's irregular silhouette and the small animal he'd seen in the cell moments earlier was strange enough to enforce a lasting impression. The third was an unknown. She looked like an old woman, dressed in the garb of the Southern Water Tribe, but as this was the Spirit World that could all be an illusion.

"Haineko?" the woman he'd just healed said, taking a step towards the shadows. "What's going on?"

"Rangiku Matsumoto," the old woman-maybe-illusion said, smiling. "We meet at last."

"And who are you? I already have a Spirit Guide, as you can see." Matsumoto gestured at the shape of the strange animal, walking circles around her feet.

Izuru didn't jump when Wabisuke put a hand on his shoulder, but it was a near thing. "It's time for you to go."

It was as if he'd been pushed backwards. Izuru stumbled and flailed, but failed to keep his balance. He fell.

When he woke up, he was back in the cell, with Matsumoto unconscious on the floor. _I hope I did the right thing._


	10. Chapter 10

Rangiku is ten years old and she's all alone. Her parents are long dead, lost in some skirmish or other, and she's just lost her older sister. There is no one to take care of her now, and she's so hungry.

"Here, have some."

It's a boy, about her own age. He has silver hair and a kind smile. And food. Food he's willing to share.

Next, they are hiding. Equalists and Powerful alike search for runaways, new soldiers to recruit to their cause.

No. No, they're after her, specifically. Why are they after her?

The memory of airbending hits her the hardest. It's the first of the elements other than earth she tries to bend. The boy helps, shows her how to rustle the leaves and ruffle the hair of people halfway across a square.

Firebending comes natural. Waterbending, not so much.

"I need a teacher," she says to the boy one day, when they're older. "If I'm going to make any difference in this war, I need to be prepared. I need to find one."

" _We_ need to find one," he says and smiles. This is before he does that all the time.

'The Society'. They hear legends about it, even though it hasn't been around long enough to be a proper legend yet. Legends are always about long dead people, not soldiers fighting for peace today. But if they are real - and they have to be, as scared as all the Powerful and the Equalists are of them - they are just what she's been looking for.

"We go in separate," the boy says from where they are hiding in the bushes. "That way, if they aren't friendly, I can come in and help. If they are friendly, we'll both join up and find teachers. I'm sure there's much I don't know about airbending."

She nods. She takes a deep breath and stands up. The boy will find a place to hide. He always does.

She doesn't go straight to the main building. She isn't stupid, or maybe she is. She knows about officers and clerks, who never spare street urchins a glance. Spying is the best way of things, showing her lack of money and parents before she shows her skills. That will help her choose.

He's so kind. He's the first one to find her, a man with the markings of a Lieutenant, but who looks like he should own a bookstore. He invites her into his home and offers her food and tea. He doesn't ask after her parents or money.

She tests him. She asks for teaching in waterbending, not mentioning anything about earth, fire or air. He teaches her, keeps her visits secret, at least as far as she knows.

The boy is happy for her. She sneaks back out into the woods every night, to sleep, to share her food with him and to show him what she's learned.

After two months, she feels safe enough in Aizen's company to tell him the whole story.

He offers her tea.

The pain isn't the worst part. It's like there's something digging around inside her head, her thoughts, rearranging them. The water from the tea crawls right up to her brain, she's sure of it, and soon her memory is all wrong.

This clashes against what she knows now. It's disorienting, seeing herself presented to the Society by Aizen as yet another refugee; one who can't remember anything, just healed from a head injury. Her younger self nods along with it all, so happy to be cared for by such a kind man and that she at least knows her own name, while her older self screams in rage.

The boys seeks her out on the third day of her amnesia. She doesn't recognize him, asks him if he's looking for a safe haven. He stares at her as if she's mad. He tells her his name, he tells her how they got there together.

It hurts again. The memories come rushing back in a flood, crashing against a dam. She tells him, _screams at him_ , to run. He does, because he trusts her. He's gone before she blacks out.

When she wakes up again, her younger self remembers nothing.

The boy comes to the Society a week later, as a refugee. He never acts like he knows her again. He's a strange one, never showing an ounce of kindness, only wicked smiles and cruel pranks. He's soon a member of Aizen's Squad. Aizen is soon a Captain.

There are other moments of pain. Other moments that Aizen has to 'fix'. Most of them involve Haineko. She wants to scream herself hoarse.

Returning to the here-and-now was a gradual process. The first thing she noticed was that everything was dark. This was easily solved by opening her eyes. All her limbs seemed to be working and were free of pain. 

For the first time in a long while, she felt whole.

The waterbender - _Izuru_ \- was kneeling next to her, staring at her with worried eyes.

"You fixed me!" were the first words out of her mouth, elated and with a life of their own.

"I-I did?"

"I'm pretty sure you did." To demonstrate, she pulled the water away from his hands and flung it at the bars, cutting through them with ease. 

Hinamori and Abarai watched in stunned silence as she got to her feet and did the same for their cage.

"We can't stand around here all day!" Rangiku said as soon as she'd broken their chains. "I never learned to heal, so I suggest you," she look to Izuru, "stay here and wake the rest. We don't have the time to wait for them to wake on their own. And if you could stitch my broken head together, I don't think this will be much of challenge for you."

Abarai and Hinamori made their way out of the shattered remains of their cage. Hinamori rushed over to Izuru and embraced him in a hug, while Abrai went to kneel down next to Captain Tosen.

"You sure they're just sleeping?" he asked, pressing three fingers to Tosen's throat.

Rangiku crouched down next to Hitsugaya and put her ear to his mouth. Puffs off air brushed against the shell of her ear, slow and steady. "Yes. It isn't the first time Aizen's done this."

"Well, this one's dea-"

Pain tore at Rangiku's side. The water she'd left on the floor had lashed out, scratching at her arm. She threw herself backwards, shielding Hitsugaya with her body. Aizen was standing in the doorway, one arm around Abarai's neck, the other holding the water in the shape of a sphere.

"Hand over the weapon," he said, once more the very picture of serenity, "or this man loses his life."

"Don't do it, Izuru!" Abarai shouted, only to have his head encased in water.

Aizen's smile was poison. "Unless you think your friend can breathe under water, I suggest you hand it over. There's no idea trying to destroy it. You'll need more force than merely stomping on it to achieve that."

Rangiku sat stock still as Izuru made his way out of their cell, hand cradled around the small crystal. He kept his eye on Aizen the entire way, stepping around the Captain-Commander and Lieutenant Sasakibe.

"Thank you." The water didn't uncurl from Abarai's head. Instead, it pull him forward, slamming him and Izuru into the floor. "I'll take my leave of you."

 _He must have found the antidote,_ Rangiku thought as she helped pull the water away from Abarai. _Which means Gin..._ The terror was so unexpected and yet familiar. _No, that idiot can't have died that easily. I won't allow it!_

Abarai gasping for air was relief enough to push that thought aside, if only for a moment. "Are you all right?"

"I will be," Abarai said, struggling to his feet with Izuru and Hinamori's help, "the second I get a chance to burn that man to cinder."

"Can you stand?" Hinamori asked.

Abarai nodded and, after a second of hesitation, Izuru and Hinamori let go of him. He swayed a little, but pushed aside their hands when they tried to offer new support. "I'm fine. A little water won't kill me. Not that quickly at least."

"Change of plans," Rangiku said. "Show me how to heal them."

Izuru turned to look at her with wide eyes. "What?"

Rangiku grabbed his arm and pulled him over to kneel next to Hitsugaya. "If we're going after Aizen while he has _that_ , we need back-up. These people are some of our best fighters. We need them and you need me here to tell them not to kill you on sight. Help me."

With a nod, Izuru began.

******

Waking the sleeping ones was easier said than done. There was pressure on parts of their brains that Izuru had trouble figuring out how to safely remove. It was slowly dissipating on its own, flowing to other parts of their bodies where it should have been if Aizen hadn't tampered with it. Making it do so faster without ripping an artery was on the same level as directing a needle through a vein without puncturing something.

Matsumoto was a quick study, thankfully.

"Did it happen again?" was the white-haired boy's first question when he opened his eyes.

"Yes," Matsumoto said, helping him to sit up. "Aizen put you and the other Captains to sleep. I'm assuming he did it to himself too, the first time, to throw us off his scent."

"Hmm," the boy said, staring at Izuru as if he was thinking of where he'd put his handcuffs.

"Izuru there is on our side. As is, surprisingly enough, Gin Ichimaru." She kept talking over the boy's look of skeptical shock. "I know it sounds crazy. Believe me, that's the least weird thing that's happened since you passed out. All you need to know is that Aizen has gone mad. We're still unsure of what his goals are. Tosen was working with him and he may have other accomplices." 

She took a deep breath and looked the boy square in the eyes. "Please trust me, Captain."

Izuru was too tired to be surprised.

The boy - _Captain_ \- held Matsumoto's gaze for a long moment. "Very well. I am Captain Toshiro Hitsugaya." He gave Izuru a courteous nod. "If my Lieutenant says you're trustworthy, I will take her word for it. Should you betray us, know that I will crush you."

His eyes were cold as ice as he spoke. Izuru returned the nod with a curt one of his own, fighting not to look away.

The other eight took a good twenty minutes to wake. 

"We need to return to the main office and gather our troupes." Izuru had never quite understood the expression 'larger than life' until the Captain-Commander spoke. His voice demanded you pay attention to it, without him raising it. It would have been fascinating, if it hadn't been so terrifying.

"Permission to go searching for Ichimaru, Captain-Commander?" Matsumoto held the Captain-Commander's cold, calculating gaze without flinching.

"You think he is a priority?"

"I do. He may have inside information on Aizen's plans. After all, they were working together up until an hour ago."

The Captains, except for Captain Hitsugaya and a man who'd introduced himself as Captain Kuchiki, had already begun making their way out of the room. Captain Kuchiki and Renji of all people had been hovering around a young woman who'd called herself Lieutenant Rukia Kuchiki. It was a name Izuru knew he recognized and judging by Renji's behavior, he knew from where. She seemed too busy yelling at the boy with the orange hair to pay them any attention.

"Know thy enemy," the Captain-Commander muttered. "Very well, I grant you permission, if your Captain agrees."

"I do."

The people around him were all healed. Renji and Momo looked to have forgiven him. The combination of both of those factors was what allowed Izuru's thoughts to drift into the territory of: _I Gin dead? Hurt? Should I...?_

Matsumoto grabbing his hand dragged him away from his conflicting emotions, if only for a few seconds. He gave her a look he hoped was inquiring.

"You know Gin better than anyone, at the moment," she whispered to him as she pulled him into the hallway. "And I wouldn't be surprised if he's in great need of a healer right now."

_Gin. She's calling him Gin. What did I do to her?_

She glanced over her shoulder at him and gave him a smile that he couldn't quite place. "I'll explain later. Damn, but I have a lot to explain later, to a lot of people. Just trust me. You'll understand when we find him."

The hallway didn't look much for the world. The walls had marks on them, as if from being kicked by a tiger-mule. There was a clear trail of blood. It was too dark too see, but Izuru could feel it and he guessed Matsumoto could as well. 

Outside there wasn't a soul in sight. The sound of distant explosions called Izuru's eyes to the east. Buildings were one fire and the ground was trembling.

"This way," Matsumoto said, pulling him in the opposite direction. The red strains on the ground seemed unending. "He must have hidden himself in the woods."

 _Spirits,_ Izuru thought, unsure if he wanted to pray for Gin to be alive or not.

The trail of blood ended at the foot of a tree. 

"You climb up there. I'll get us water," Matsumoto said and crouched down, closed her eyes and pressed her palms to the grass.

Izuru began climbing without a word, holding his breath.

Gin was a mess. There was blood everywhere, most of it leaking from the remains of his right arm. He'd collapsed on his back in a haphazard pose, his skin pale as death and his chest unmoving. 

Izuru gulped, swallowing back tears. _Crying over someone who locked you in a cell, how fitting._

The crack of the ground splitting open below the tree made him jump. "We have water! How bad is it?"

"Bad." Izuru's lips felt numb."I don't know if there's anything I can do."

"I'll help you." Leaves rustled as Matsumoto made her way up the tree. Her expression went blank when she spotted Gin. Izuru could have sworn he saw her blinking away tears. "Here."

He took a sphere of water from her and pressed it against the broken bones and flesh that was Gin's right arm. There was life left. Not much, but enough to work with. "We need to stop the bleeding. Do you know how to get the body to produce blood faster?"

"No idea," Matsumoto said, her voice strained. She had some water left, which she'd wrapped around Gin's waist, as if trying to hold him together.

"How well do you know anatomy?" The bleeding had stopped, the flesh of the arm knitting together. It didn't seem like that would be enough.

"Enough to know his heart is beating too slow and that he's breathing too fast."

"He's going into shock from the blood loss," Izuru said, falling back on his medical training. "I need you to keep him warm and his airways open."

The water around Gin's waist traveled up to encase his neck and the back of his head, tilting his head backwards. Izuru could feel the water warming up and breathed a sigh of relief. Then he shook his head. He still had to do his part.

Bone marrow was hard to get at. You had to know just the way to push, the way to direct chi, to get any form of result. It was a blessing and a curse that Izuru had been given so many opportunities to practice this skill, back at the Academy.

He sat still, concentrating, for spirits knew how long. His arms were shaking and his jaw ached from the way he'd clenched his teeth together. Only Matsumoto's running commentary made him aware of the passing time.

"You're not dying now," he heard her say. "You hear me? You die now and I'll find a way to drag you back."

_Did I transfer my own memories to her? Part of my powers? Is that why she can waterbend now? Is that even **possible**?_

Coughing. Gin was coughing.

"That's it! Keep doing whatever it is you're doing," Matsumoto said, cradling Gin's head in both hands. "And _you_ stay still until we're done, understood?"

"Perfectly." Gin's voice was raspy and faint, but there.

Izuru gave one last push, then collapsed onto his side, letting the water fall. "That should do it."

He yelped as Gin's hand shot out and grabbed his wrist. "Careful."

"What?" Izuru followed Gin's line of sight to the tattered remains of his sleeve. There were leaves spread everywhere and they didn't match the ones on the tree's branches.

"They're poisonous," Gin said, his voice regaining strength by the second. "Aizen tore all my pouches, you see." He held up his left arm and let his sleeve ride up. There was a number of small pouches sewn to the inside of it, in two neat rows. "Tried to use them against me, once he realized what they were. Should have realized a clever fox-snake makes sure to develop an immunity to its own venom."

Izuru opened his mouth to say something, _anything_ , but was cut short by a loud explosion.

"Just what we need," Matsumoto said, letting the water around Gin's head fall. "Someone just set the forest on fire. Ichimaru, you're up."

"Up for what?" Gin asked, struggling into a sitting position.

"You're an airbender; put it out, you lazy bastard!" Matsumoto said, sounding like she wanted to hug and hit him at the same time. "I have a distinct memory of you doing exactly that with a broken arm, to a quite large bonfire. And I clearly remember being ten at the time, so I'm assuming you've gotten better at airbending since then. It shouldn't be too much of a challenge for you."

Gin looked poleaxed. "...you remember!"

"Obviously." This time, she did hug him. "And we will have a long talk after this. But Aizen first."

Matsumoto let go of Gin and pushed him back to a supine position. "You're staying here."

"Rangiku-"

"Stay with the healer." Matsumoto's voice brooked no argument. "I said we'd talk later and we will. For that, you need to be alive. Rest for a bit, then put out the fire. _If_ Izuru says it's all right, you can come help defend the shoreline and beat up Aizen. But only _if_."

Gin gave a weak nod and relaxed. "Aizen is the leader of the Powerful. The fleet will follow his orders, if he can get in contact with them. Be careful."

If the news shocked Matsumoto, she didn't show it. "Look after him."

All Izuru could do in reply was nod and watch her leave.

The moment was followed by silence, only broken by the crackling of fire. And then, Gin's laughter.

"You did it, Izuru!" he said between laughs. "You did it!"

"Excuse me?"

Gin took a deep breath and pushed himself up onto his elbows. He gave the most honest smile Izuru had ever seen him wear. "You healed the Avatar."

******

Power was flowing through Rangiku's veins. She couldn't remember ever feeling so _whole_ , so balanced.

She couldn't run any faster than she had before, though. Pity that.

"Rangiku!"

She made halt and whirled around, heading towards the voice. "Shuhei!" she called back. The streets before her were disturbingly empty. "How's the regrouping going?"

"As well as you can expect," Shuhei answered. He was holding both of his scythes at the ready, as if he was expecting an enemy soldier to jump around the corner any second. "Aizen had the rest of the village convinced the Captain-Commander and the rest of us had been killed by Ichimaru and ordered everyone to defend the shore while he chased Ichimaru down. Took a while to dispel that rumor."

"Where did he go?"

"He got back to the village a few minutes before we broke out. The Captain-Commander ordered me to stand guard here, so I have no idea what's happened since then. From what I've heard, it doesn't sound good."

Rangiku put a hand on his shoulder. "I'll go help. I have news of Aizen's motives. Izuru and Gi- Ichimaru are in the forest. If they come this way, don't attack them."

Shuhei gave her a searching look. Whatever he found, it seemed to satisfy him. He nodded. "Go."

She didn't have to be told twice. Knowing the village by heart as she did, it took little effort to find shortcuts leading to the shore.

She caught sight of Yamada tending to a wounded guard halfway there. "Have you seen Captain Aizen?" she asked. Rushing headlong to the shore, as logical a move as that should be, wasn't a good strategy if she passed on the opportunity to gather information.

Yamada looked up at her, his gloves soaked with blood and his face pale. "Is he still a Captain?" he asked, voice not much above a whisper. "I thought the Captain-Commander stripped him off his title."

"Right, just Aizen," Rangiku said, before he could start babbling. "I must have missed that. That's not important. Just...I need to find him."

The soldier Yamada was tending to gave a groan, but didn't open his eyes. Yamada pulled his bandages a little tighter. "Last time I saw them, the Captain-Commander and the Captains were trying to corner him at the main square. I don't think they succeeded."

"Thanks."

The houses she past had begun to show marks of a struggle. Burn marks at first, then broken walls and finally collapsed buildings.

 _Guess it'll be a while before I go to that tavern again._ She tore her eyes away from the ashes as quickly as she could, in case there were bones to be seen among the fallen beams.

She wasn't ready for the sight of the main square. There was blood everywhere. No bodies, just blood.

Something tugged at her mind. She fought it at first, but it wasn't painful. It felt like power. She let it happen.

******

"There, that's fixed," Gin said when the forest fire was little more than ashes. "It's amazing what you can do by just pulling the air _away_ from something."

Izuru had to admit he was impressed. Two minutes ago, nine trees had been on fire. Now, there was little more than singed bark and the fading smell of smoke as evidence that anything out of the ordinary had happened.

Gin whirled in place, only swaying slightly, and began walking in the direction of the village before Izuru could react.

"Where are you going?" Stupid question, but he didn't feel bold enough to grab Gin's arm.

"To help Rangiku, of course," Gin said, smile genuine and tense at the same time. "You coming?"

Izuru weighed his options. Either he could disobey a direct order from _the Avatar_ or he could try his skills against Gin's. Even weak from blood loss, Izuru suspected Gin would be too much of a challenge for him. The best he could hope for in a fight like that was both of them getting equally injured.

"If you start to feel dizzy, you sit down," Izuru said, not backed up by much confidence. "You won't be much help to her if you faint."

"That's why I have my trusted healer along for the ride!" Gin said. "And while we walk, I'll tell you a story."

"A story?" They'd already exited the forest. Izuru thanked the stars he'd done the smart thing and fill up his bottle with water from the spring Matsumoto had created.

"A story about the Avatar and Aizen. Sound interesting?"

"Very." And he meant it.

"I got to know Aizen many years ago, a few days after he decided to erase Rangiku's memories. Yes, that's what he did, don't look so surprised."

Izuru managed to keep running, but only just. "The brain isn't like a blackboard! Using bloodbending to wipe out memories like that would be..."

"...incredibly dangerous and possibly lethal. Probably. I never learned to do it myself, seeing as I'm not waterbender, so I wouldn't know. Can you guess why he did it?"

 _We don't have time for guessing games,_ the voice of a much younger Izuru said, making him shake his head.

"Aizen has set his aim high as the stars, you see." Gin paused at a fork in the road, then picked the path leading to the right. "He didn't create the Powerful, but the day he learned of their existence, he started working on a way to reach the top of the organization. They have the biggest army in the known world, making it a sound strategy if your goal was to be emperor of the whole world."

"Emperor?"

"Of the whole world," Gin repeated, his grin wide and a little mad. "Silly, isn't it? We could probably spend hours deciphering his true motives, but we don't have hours. Here, to the left."

Izuru followed him through a yard, mimicking Gin as he waved to an elderly couple, seated in a hammock.

"Now, the Avatar is naturally the biggest threat to such an endeavor, with or without that enhancement crystal Mr. Urahara thought up; which got him kicked out of here, by the way. Also Aizen's doing. But if you kill the Avatar, you'll have to go searching for the reincarnation right away and braving the Avatar State isn't done lightly. So naturally, seeing as he'd already been experimenting with the limits of his bloodbending, he thought he'd give amnesia a try."

Izuru let Gin's words wash over him. Gin was rambling, yes, but somehow it felt like deserved rambling. As if the man had been keeping this holed up for years and finally was getting a chance to tell someone.

 _That's probably the case_. And wasn't that a punch to the gut.

"You've been looking out for her, since then."

Gin nodded. "Someone had to. I was the only one who knew. Someone had to find a way to fix her. Someone who knew what was wrong in the first place."

It was a bit like assembling a jigsaw puzzle. "And you found me."

"On that point, I got very lucky. I will admit giving you the crystal was a bit of a gamble, but I felt I could trust you. What I had to bet on was if you were going to trust me. Though drugging you probably helped."

Izuru stopped. His legs refused to move further. "You drugged me?"

"Only for the first few days," Gin said, his tone so light it sounded stretchred to a breaking point. He looked to be carefully avoiding Izuru's gaze. "After that it seemed both pointless and cruel. You truly are a remarkably loyal and kind person, Izuru."

Gin slowed down and turned around. Without warning, he walked into Izuru's personal space, wrapped his arms around Izuru and whispered: "Thank you." 

He was off running again before Izuru could decide if he wanted to return the hug or push him away.

They were starting to run into guards. The first one Izuru recognized from the holding cell. He stepped out of their way the moment he saw them and gave them a nod, pointing towards the ocean. Izuru took the time to give him a bow in thanks, then hurried to catch up with Gin.

He had to hold back nausea when they passed over what looked to be the main square of the village. At least they hadn't seen any corpses yet; just plenty of injured people being tended to by medics and healers.

The shoreline would, any other day, most likely have been a breathtaking sight. There was no beach, only a lot of smooth rocks, blending over into grass and water on each side. It seemed to go on forever.

This was where all the people had disappeared to. The Powerfuls' fleet was still out of range, so there was no canon fire yet. That didn't mean the people on the shore had been idle. They were all lined up along the waterline; the non-benders holding weapons and the benders already at work with shaping obstacles for the canons and sending attacks flying Aizen's way.

And in the middle of it all, out in the water, were Matsumoto and Aizen.

Matsumoto was flying. Izuru had heard of airbenders who could control the winds and fly with the help of kites and he'd seen skilled waterbenders create whirlpool pillars that could reach the height of a skyscraper.

This was neither. She was floating and her eyes were little more than white light.

Face to face with her was Aizen, protected by a water shield and kept aloft by a pillar. At least that's what it looked like; the two of them were moving too fast for Izuru to follow their attacks and parries.

Gin grabbed his hand. "Get us out there."

"She's in Avatar State," Izuru said, hardly believing his own words. "I don't think she needs our help."

"Aizen has a fleet of battleships on his side and that crystal," Gin said, his fingers digging into Izuru's arm. "If she dies now, there will be no new Avatar. Get us out there!"

This was the first time he'd heard Gin sound desperate. It was not a calming experience. Taking a deep breath Izuru reached out, following the currents. It seemed the Society's benders had been hard at work before Aizen showed up, creating columns of rock just under the surface, thick enough to break the metal of the ships' hulls.

"Do you have a plan, other than that?" Izuru asked, stepping onto the waves as if they were a road.

"Just get me close to Aizen and I'll handle the rest."

 _Trust. Right._ The fleet was looming on the horizon, drawing nearer by the second. Izuru could feel the stares of the soldiers on the shore. _They'll stop us if I don't do this quickly._

So he did.

Rushing out over the surface of the ocean felt like flying; flying right into a thunderstorm, that was. The soldiers on the shore began firing after them, leaving Izuru to dodge and zigzag, one arm around Gin's waist and the other controlling the current and the surface tension. He could hear other waterbenders following his lead.

Without warning, a whirling pillar of water rose up before them. Izuru threw himself to the left just in time to avoid being sucked into the vortex. The waterbender behind him wasn't as lucky.

"Keep us floating," he heard Gin say and he did.

Focused as he was, it was hard to see the exact hand motions Gin made. All Izuru was truly aware of was the violent altercation taking place above them, as well as the sudden gale blowing up around him. The gale rose to a storm as the Avatar and Aizen danced around each other. Aizen's pillar of water had begun to spin faster, showering the Avatar with ice needles, which she blocked with winds and water of her own.

The air around Izuru felt like it would burst. And then Gin let go.

There was no scream. Had thus been a play or a motion picture, there would have been a scream.

Aizen's pillar of water fell, raining painful drops of water down on them. Izuru glanced up and saw Gin sitting stock still next to him, his right arm extended upwards.

The water was tearing at his control. Izuru let go, to avoid having his limbs torn off and automatically wrapped an arm around Gin. Above them, Matsumoto was moving on out to sea, towards the fleet.

"She'll be fine," Gin said. Izuru had no idea if he was talking to himself or not. "As long as Aizen is out of the way, she can handle a few ships."

Treading water, Izuru followed her flight, then turned to see soldiers from the Society passing them by, following her. "Looks like she'll have people helping her. I think she'll be-"

Aizen's head appeared before them, rising out of the water as slowly and menacing as a crocodile-shark. He was bleeding out of his eyes, nose and mouth, and he was pale as death, but he was moving.

 _He still has the crystal!_ The small jewel glittered in Aizen's right hand, glowing with an inner light. The water behind him was rising, slowly but steadily, to form a wall.

A tsunami. Aizen had summoning a tsunami. _We're all going to die._

Izuru wrapped a bubble of water around himself and Gin, and held his breath. The impact, when it came, felt like being hit by a truck. Everything went dark.

Then...

He wasn't dead. Somehow, he wasn't dead. He was sitting on...something.

"This," he said out loud, talking to no one in particular, "is a stingray-whale."

******

The enemy fleet lay in ruins. At least that's what she'd been told.

The ceiling in the fourth Squad's barracks needed tending to. She suspected they'd come under fire during Aizen's escape out of the village. There was a hole, right above Lieutenant Kotetsu's desk, letting in the sunlight. _At least it's not raining._

The village had been kept remarkable safe from water, considering a tsunami had rolled toward it not two hours ago. Apparently one of the newcomers – Hinamori if Rangiku had heard right – had organized a barrier, aided by all manner of squad members as well as homemade bombs she kept up her sleeves, while the captains and lieutenants had gone after the fleet.

Captain Unohana herself had been next to Rangiku's bed when she'd woken up and told her of their victory, along with the fact that she was allowed to leave as soon as she stopped feeling dizzy. No one had talked to her after that.

They all stared at her, as she made her way to the exit. Only Yamada dared give her a wave and a "Hope you feel better!".

Ikkaku, Shuhei and Yumichika were waiting for her outside.

"So. You're the Avatar, huh?" Shuhei said, rubbing at the back of his neck. And just like that, Rangiku knew everything would be all right.

******

The ride back to shore had been eventful to say the least. The experience of being escorted to the shallows by a mammal the size of two cruise liners was only somewhat overshadowed by the woman who'd given it a pat on the head, before ordering him and Gin to get their injuries looked at.

Then there was the staring. Every soldier not out in the water and fighting the ships stared at them. No one said anything, though, not even when it was all over.

Not even Gin. He just stared right back, keeping close to Izuru's side as they made their way to what Izuru assumed to be the village's hospital.

It felt good to be the one leading, for once.

Matsumoto came back in one piece as well. The moment she was brought in, unconscious but unharmed, and put on a bed next to the ones they were resting in, Gin announced he was feeling much better and dragged Izuru outside.

The sun was shining. Around Izuru the world was finally slowing down, leaving the bustle of the people rebuilding and tending to the wounded a hum at the edge of his perception. The Avatar was back, the Society was safe for the moment and he, Izuru Kira, was not a traitor. He felt at peace.

"So," Gin said, having slumped down on an abandoned porch. "What's your verdict?"

Izuru blinked. Of course his equilibrium had to be upended by Gin. Of course. "Verdict?"

"I do believe I told you I drugged you. I'm waiting for a reaction," Gin said, as if discussing the fine weather they were having. He'd folded his arms behind his head and had closed his eyes, basking in the sunlight. 

Izuru's shoulders felt very heavy. In fact, his either body felt heavy. The days activities were catching up with him, bit by bit, and Gin's carefree smirk was doing nothing to lighten the burden.

With a deep sigh, Izuru sank down next to Gin, his back rested against the front door. The abused piece of wood gave an ominous creak but held. "I don't have one," he admitted.

That got Gin's attention. He didn't move much, but his pose lost its air of relaxation. He held one arm up to shield his eyes from the sun and turned to look at Izuru, one eyebrow raised. "Really?"

"Yes, really." The calm was dissipating, leaving a thick gray cloud in its wake. Acceptance had never tasted so bitter. He couldn't tear his eyes away from Gin's face. _I'm so pathetic._

"What if I told you that I also stalked you for a while. Not since your Academy days, but the moment I heard benders had fled from that wonderful little institution I couldn't help but get curious. And then I couldn't let an excellent opportunity go to waste, what with the news of Urahara's toy leaking out. I hope you understand."

 _Of course_. Izuru could feel himself digging a hole of self-pity, but had no idea how to stop. _How low am I for mourning the fact that a man with a mission as important as **this** pretended to..._

"You should tell Rangiku what I did."

Izuru started. "Excuse me?"

Gin gave a shrug; as much as that was possible for a man lying on his back with one arm pinned under his head. "Rangiku isn't one to coddle and she could take me in a fight, easily," he said, his grin fading into a thin, almost nostalgic smile. "In case you were worried about me silencing you or something."

The thought hadn't even occurred to him. He took a closer look at Gin, at the way he was pretending to relax, at the way he didn't seem to blink. It wasn't a stare-down easily broken, but at the same time it didn't feel threatening. Huh, how about that.

"You had good reasons. I won't tell her," Izuru said. "As long as you don't do it again."

He'd expected a singsonged "I make no promises!" from Gin. What he got instead was an unsmiling nod. It was eerier in its seriousness.

"You're so understanding, Izuru." The lack of mockery made the hairs at the back of Izuru's neck stand on end.

"Well, you have spent the majority of your life struggling to bring the Avatar back to the world." He gave what he hoped sounded like a laugh. "I think that gives you one pass on drugging people to convince them to help you. I hold no grudge."

"And yet you still look like you want to run away from me," Gin said. "Why is that?"

Damn blush. Izuru could feel the color rise to his cheeks

Gin's eyes widened almost comically. He opened his mouth and closed it, no sound coming out. Then he broke down laughing.

It felt like a slap in the face. Izuru curled in on himself and made ready to get up and get away. But then Gin said:

"That's a relief!"

Izuru stopped, halfway on his feet.

"Ah, silly Izuru!" Gin said, the smile having returned to his face. "I was worried I'd left you scarred for life here – right ready to go throw myself at the mercy of Unohana herself and then it turns out I was dead wrong."

The pieces were clicking into place. "So, eh, you actually...?" _Don't say 'like me'! **Don't say 'like me'**! Oh please let yourself be more mature than that!_

Gin gave him a wink. "You thought I was seducing you merely to keep you going along with my evil plans?"

 _Seducing_. Izuru almost choked on his own spit. "Eh, that is, I didn't, eh..."

"You were so shy, I thought I was pushing you too far," Gin said. He'd all but melted back into a truly relaxed pose, which was an achievement considering the unyielding wood he'd settled down on.

A shadow blocking out the sunlight stopped short whatever answer Kira had on the way.

The Captain-Commander stood looming over them. "You are reinstated as Captain," he said, his voice curt and brooking no argument.

Not that a mere tone of voice would stop Gin. "Just like that?" he asked, one eye cracked open to look at the Captain-Commander with something between interest and suspicion.

"For now," the Captain-Commander said. "You have been cleared of all charges, _for now_. We need all the help available with security while we rebuild." His expression remained blank as he turned to look at Izuru. "You are also welcome to stay, Izuru Kira. You have been of great service to the Society."

Izuru hurried to bow before the Captain-Commander moved on to whatever he had to do next. He moved like an icebreaker through the surrounding chaos, leaving bowing soldiers and healers in his wake.

"That settles that then," Gin said once the Captain-Commander was out of earshot. "Looks like we're both staying here."

"Looks like it," Izuru echoed. His thoughts felt like dim clouds, bobbing around his head like his own personal fog. "And what do we do now?"

Gin pushed himself to his feet, more carefully than "Now, we go see if there's something to eat! That's important when recovering from blood loss, right?" He got a nod in reply. "Then it's decided!"

Without protest Izuru followed Gin, keeping close to make sure neither of them stumbled. His legs were heavy as lead, but he didn't much mind. Not now.

The main square was bustling with even more activity than the rest of the village. Tables had been carried out into the streets, bowls and baskets of all kinds of food being set out for anyone to take. Gin and Izuru got some wary glances when they approached, but thankfully no one protested their right to take a plate each to fill with food.

Izuru caugt sight of Momo and Renji, the second in deep conversation with Lieutenant Kuchiki and the first standing next to the Captain Hitsugaya. Izuru couldn't help but smile at the sight of the two of them. They were so engrossed in their talking that Captain Hitsugaya didn't notice Gin approaching until Gin, quite childishly, bend low and shouted "Boo!" in his ear.

Hitsugaya looked ready to commit murder. Momo just looked confused, and somewhat suspicious.

"You're lucky Captain Unohana's pet showed you mercy," Izuru heard Captain Hitsugaya say to Gin. "Not to mention that if anyone as much as breathes about execution Matsumoto will kill them. Which is the only reason I haven't killed you myself. So you can call off your bodyguard. "

To his own surprise, Izuru noticed that he was hovering. He'd never hovered before. Back at the Academy, it was Renji or Momo who'd done that for him, rarely the other way around.

"Stand down, Izuru," Gin said, his tone of voice dripping with amusement. "I'm sure Rangiku will be grateful, _Snowy_."

Hitsugaya flushed beet red, his expression caught somewhere between embarrassment and rage. He stomped off, looking every inch his young age. Momo gave Izuru and Gin a quick bow, before going after him, giggling.

Gin stretched, looking ever so pleased with himself. "Seeing as I'm returning to my captain-ly duties, I'm in need of a Lieutenant."

Izuru whirled back around to face Gin, any thought of following Momo (or Renji) to talk gone like a blown out candle. "W-what?" 

Gin smirked at him. "You're strong enough to be one _and_ I was the one to initiate you into the Spiritual World. Tradition dictates I be the one to ask you first. You are of course allowed to refuse my offer."

Izuru stared. His mind was blank. "I... I mean... I..."

Matsumoto jumped out from around the corner of a nearby house, flanked by three men Izuru vaguely recognized. "Oh spirits, just kiss already!"

"Well," Gin said, putting his hands on Izuru's shoulders, "how could I disobey a direct order from the Avatar?"

Izuru stared at Gin, stared at Gin's lips (still smiling that infuriating and familiar smile), sighed and finally pulled the damned man into a kiss. _There are worst fates I suppose._


End file.
